Otero Otero, PatriciaHita Millán, Isabel del MarTorres Iglesias, Ángela J.Vázquez González, Fernando Lino2020-11-242020-11-242020Otero, P.; Hita, I.; Torres, Á.J.; Vázquez, F.L. Brief Psychological Intervention Through Mobile App and Conference Calls for the Prevention of Depression in Non-Professional Caregivers: A Pilot Study. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2020, 17, 4578http://hdl.handle.net/10347/23769Despite its potential, no intervention aimed at non-professional caregivers administered through a smartphone app has been proven to prevent depression. The objective of this pilot study was to evaluate the efficacy and feasibility of an indicated depression-prevention intervention for non-professional caregivers administered through an app with the addition of conference-call contact. The intervention was administered to 31 caregivers (Mean age = 54.0 years, 93.5% women). An independent evaluation determined the incidence of depression, depressive symptoms, risk of developing depression, and the variables in the theoretical model (positive environmental reinforcement, negative automatic thoughts) at the pre-intervention and post-intervention, as well as the one- and three-month follow-ups. The incidence of depression at 3 months of follow-up was 6.5%. There was a significant reduction in depressive symptoms (p < 0.001) and in the risk of developing depression (p < 0.001) at the post-intervention and at the one- and three-month follow-ups. The model’s variables improved significantly after the intervention and were associated with post-intervention depressive symptoms. The intervention was more effective in caregivers who had a lower level of depressive symptoms at the pre-intervention. Adherence and satisfaction with the intervention were high. The results encourage future research using a randomized controlled clinical trialeng© 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)Atribución 4.0 Internacionalhttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/DepressionNonprofessional caregiverPreventionCognitiveBehavioralTelephoneAppjournal article10.3390/ijerph171245781660-4601open access