Oxford Social Movement Activation Study

NCT05963581 | Completed

• 1 other identifier: SOMA
• Study Type: interventional
• Target: 121
• Locations: 1 country
• Sites: 1

Brief Summary

For adolescents and young people particularly, there is need for better and more readily available treatments for depression and low mood. Comparatively less work has been done to characterize and treat depression specifically in young people. Previous literature indicates that often the unaddressed or under-addressed mental health difficulties in youth perseverate into adulthood and contribute to a host of individual and communal difficulties throughout the lifespan. Specifically, if depression goes unaddressed in young adulthood, the likelihood of a chronic course and multiple relapses or recurrences is much higher. In the present research, we seek to investigate the potential efficacy of a novel intervention for young people with low mood. Depression disrupts social functioning, and social connectedness is especially important during adolescence for healthy development. Within a growing body of literature, social dance has been linked to social and mental health benefits along the dimensions of those disrupted in depression. We hypothesize that social dance might preferentially and efficiently target the goals of addressing loneliness, closeness, and enjoyment in young people compared to other approaches to the treatment of low mood and depression in a way that could lead to mood improvements. Specifically, we are interested in the impact of a social movement-based activity, salsa dancing, on young peoples' mood and social and emotional processing. Social and emotional processing (SEP) tasks, such as emotional facial recognition and memory for emotional words, have been demonstrated to correspond with early changes that can be predictive of mood changes and treatment efficacy downstream. Including SEP tasks in this research will help to elucidate the potential mechanisms underlying mood improvements, should social dance correspond to improved mood in participants. The present research seeks to:

1. 1.Aim 1: Investigate the effect of a social dance intervention on low mood. This will be assessed by administering psychological questionnaires to participants before, during, and after the study course of social dance sessions. In particular, we hypothesize that participants will experience reductions in low mood (assessed via the PHQ-9) following the social movement intervention as compared to a waitlist control.
2. 2.Aim 2: Characterize any early social and emotional processing changes that correspond to social dance versus a waitlist control. This will be assessed via social and emotional processing task performance before, during, and following the social movement sessions. We anticipate that improvements in social and emotional functioning as demonstrated via one or several of these tasks will assist in elucidating the possible mechanisms responsible for mood improvement from social movement.
3. 3.Aim 3: Characterize any social interaction difference from pre to post intervention that correspond to the social dance versus waitlist condition. This will be assessed via a version of the trust game before and following the social movement sessions and waitlist control. We anticipate seeing more disrupted trust behavior prior to the intervention or control conditions and less disrupted trust behavior following salsa dancing classes, but not the waitlist control.

Conditions

Depression; Low Mood; Depressive Disorder; Mood Disorders; Depressive Symptoms

Keywords

low mood, depression, social movement, dance, salsa dance

Outcome Measures

Primary Outcomes (1)

• Change in depressive symptoms from baseline at week four, eight, and twelve

  Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) score. Higher scores indicate greater depressive symptoms.

  Will be assessed at week 0, 4, 8, and 12 of the intervention

Secondary Outcomes (11)

• Change in anxiety symptoms from baseline at week four, eight, and twelve

  Will be assessed at week 0, 4, 8, and 12 of the intervention

• Change in social anxiety symptoms from baseline at week four, eight, and twelve

  Will be assessed at week 0, 4, 8, and 12 of the intervention

• Change in loneliness from baseline at week four, eight, and twelve

  Will be assessed at week 0, 4, 8, and 12 of the intervention

• Change in daily mood questionnaire scores

  daily from baseline through week 12 of the intervention

• Change in social anhedonia from baseline at week four, eight, and twelve

  Will be assessed at week 0, 4, 8, and 12 of the intervention

Study Arms (2)

Salsa Dancing

EXPERIMENTAL

Participants will complete eight weeks of a salsa course in Oxford (of which they need to attend six classes to remain in the study), followed by a one-month follow-up time point.

Behavioral: Salsa Dancing

Waitlist Control

NO INTERVENTION

Participants will wait twelve weeks, completing the questionnaires and tasks at the same study time points as participants in the experimental condition.They will then be offered the opportunity to complete the eight-week salsa course. Should they choose to participate in the salsa course, they will additionally be offered the opportunity to complete questionnaires at two additional time points.

Interventions

Salsa Dancing BEHAVIORAL

Participants will complete salsa dancing classes in central Oxford with instructor(s) from the Oxford University Salsa Society

Salsa Dancing

Eligibility Criteria

• Age: 18 Years - 24 Years
• Sex: all
• Healthy Volunteers: Yes
• Age Groups: Adult (18-64)

You may qualify if:

• Individuals aged 18 to 24 at time of eligibility screening;
• Competency to give informed consent;
• Individuals will \*not\* be excluded for a formal diagnosis of depression from a GP or other mental healthcare provider, nor for being presently or formerly on medication for depression; nor for presently or formerly attending talk therapies;

You may not qualify if:

• Individuals with a PHQ-9 score of less than 5 (indicating no low mood) or greater than 19 (indicating a low mood that could be too severe for this research);
• individuals who self-report a current or recent diagnosis of any psychotic disorder (e.g., bipolar, schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder), substance use disorders, eating disorders, or personality disorders
• individuals who self-report that they are unfit for light physical exertion;
• individuals who regularly, or have regularly, attended partner dance classes or partner dance events within the last six months (as they would already be receiving the potential benefits we are investigating in this study);
• and individuals for whom the Principal Investigator determines that the study is not suitable.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• University of Oxford: lead

Study Sites (1)

University of Oxford

Oxford, OX3 7JX, United Kingdom

Location

Related Publications (6)

• Saunders R, Buckman JEJ, Stott J, Leibowitz J, Aguirre E, John A, Lewis G, Cape J, Pilling S; NCEL network. Older adults respond better to psychological therapy than working-age adults: evidence from a large sample of mental health service attendees. J Affect Disord. 2021 Nov 1;294:85-93. doi: 10.1016/j.jad.2021.06.084. Epub 2021 Jul 9.

  PMID: 34274792 BACKGROUND

• Buckman JEJ, Underwood A, Clarke K, Saunders R, Hollon SD, Fearon P, Pilling S. Risk factors for relapse and recurrence of depression in adults and how they operate: A four-phase systematic review and meta-synthesis. Clin Psychol Rev. 2018 Aug;64:13-38. doi: 10.1016/j.cpr.2018.07.005. Epub 2018 Jul 29.

  PMID: 30075313 BACKGROUND

• Lakes KD, Marvin S, Rowley J, Nicolas MS, Arastoo S, Viray L, Orozco A, Jurnak F. Dancer perceptions of the cognitive, social, emotional, and physical benefits of modern styles of partnered dancing. Complement Ther Med. 2016 Jun;26:117-22. doi: 10.1016/j.ctim.2016.03.007. Epub 2016 Mar 9.

  PMID: 27261991 BACKGROUND

• Shuper Engelhard E, Vulcan M. The Potential Benefits of Dance Movement Therapy in Improving Couple Relations of Individuals Diagnosed With Autism Spectrum Disorder-A Review. Front Psychol. 2021 Feb 18;12:619936. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.619936. eCollection 2021.

  PMID: 33679534 BACKGROUND

• Hyvonen K, Pylvanainen P, Muotka J, Lappalainen R. The Effects of Dance Movement Therapy in the Treatment of Depression: A Multicenter, Randomized Controlled Trial in Finland. Front Psychol. 2020 Aug 12;11:1687. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.01687. eCollection 2020.

  PMID: 32903394 BACKGROUND

• Harmer CJ, Duman RS, Cowen PJ. How do antidepressants work? New perspectives for refining future treatment approaches. Lancet Psychiatry. 2017 May;4(5):409-418. doi: 10.1016/S2215-0366(17)30015-9. Epub 2017 Jan 31.

  PMID: 28153641 BACKGROUND

MeSH Terms

Conditions

Depression; Consciousness Disorders; Depressive Disorder; Mood Disorders

Condition Hierarchy (Ancestors)

Behavioral Symptoms; Behavior; Neurobehavioral Manifestations; Neurologic Manifestations; Nervous System Diseases; Signs and Symptoms; Pathological Conditions, Signs and Symptoms; Neurocognitive Disorders; Mental Disorders

Study Design

• Study Type: interventional
• Phase: not applicable
• Allocation: RANDOMIZED
• Masking: NONE
• Purpose: BASIC SCIENCE
• Intervention Model: PARALLEL
• Sponsor Type: OTHER
• Responsible Party: SPONSOR

Model Details: Participants will be randomly assigned to either the salsa dancing intervention (46 participants) or the passive waiting-list control group (46 participants). Randomization will be stratified by gender.

Study Record Dates

• First Submitted: July 18, 2023
• First Posted: July 27, 2023
• Study Start: July 17, 2023
• Primary Completion: February 28, 2024
• Study Completion: February 28, 2024
• Last Updated: June 12, 2025

Record last verified: 2025-06

Data Sharing

• IPD Sharing: Will not share

Locations

GB (1)