2026 ECNP Congress

PS04-4059

The pedal platform: digital support for psychosocial treatment interventions

Margrethe Collier Høegh — N.B. Moxness, M.J. Engen, S.H. Lyngstad, S.R. Aminoff, T.V. Lagerberg · Oslo University Hospital- Section for Clinical Psychosis Research, Division of Mental Health and Addiction, Oslo, Norway

2026 ECNP Congress

Brief introduction: Digital tools such as web platforms and apps may enhance psychosocial interventions through increasing accessibility of therapeutic content and patient motivation. The PEDAL (PsychoEducation with Digital elements and focus on Affective Lability) intervention is a psychosocial group treatment for individuals with bipolar disorder (BD) developed at Oslo University Hospital, Norway. The PEDAL intervention builds on the framework of the well-established group psychoeducational program for BD where the main purpose is to facilitate a learning- and developmental process for the patient to enable better self-management of the disorder. To further reinforce this effect, we have developed the PEDAL platform. The purpose of this platform is to support and facilitate the learning- and transfer of skills throughout the intervention period and beyond, yielding a bridge between the clinical group setting and the everyday life of the participants. The PEDAL intervention is currently conducted with in-person group sessions but may be adapted for online groups.

Methods: The content of the PEDAL platform has been developed by the PEDAL project group consisting of clinical researchers (psychologists) with experience in research on BD, affect regulation and app development, in close collaboration with lived experience experts and the e-health service supplier Youwell. Further, experts in relevant fields have contributed to the affect regulation skills training videos.

Results: The PEDAL platform is currently implemented as part of a randomised controlled trial where we investigate whether the PEDAL intervention is superior to traditional group psychoeducation in reducing affective lability in BD. The PEDAL platform comprises the following, from which selected elements will be presented in a graphical conference poster:

  • Thematic course overview with summary of main takeaways- and power point presentations for all group sessions. The summaries and topic illustrations have been developed by our lived experience expert, who is also an artist.
  • Educational skills training videos in different affect regulation strategies that are taught in two new course sessions: the three-point check from the Unified Protocol, Opposite Action and the T.I.P.P skills from Dialectical Behaviour Therapy, and various strategies to elicit Awe.
  • Digital resources covering important focus areas of the course: psychoeducation about BD, affect regulation, lived experience, and social relationships. The resources include weblinks to well-established and evidence-based webpages, podcasts, video interviews and scientific articles.
  • The PEDAL app-based mood diary: a) A daily module to register mood (e.g. sad, flat/apathetic/numb, elated/hyped, happy, irritable), perceived stress, sleep length and quality, and medication use. b) A weekly module to register substance use, menstrual cycle and psychotic/psychosis-like experiences (hallucinatory experiences, delusions/unusual ideas). c) A visual dashboard illustrating the timeline and levels of parameters such as high/low mood, sleep length, perceived stress, as selected by the participant.

Conclusions: The flexibility of the platform allows for adaptations to a wide range of clinical and non-clinical populations and to both physical and online group- and individual interventions. The platform will be developed further based on feedback from the participants in the ongoing randomised controlled trial.

References

No references