This is a protocol for a pilot randomized controlled trial of BRIDGES, a co-designed, theory-informed physiotherapist-led physical activity counselling intervention for physically inactive adolescents with depression, which will assess feasibility, acceptability, implementation processes and preliminary effectiveness to inform a future fully powered hybrid type 2 trial.
The paper presents a protocol, not trial results: BRIDGES is a pilot RCT using a hybrid type 2 implementation-effectiveness design.
The rationale is that physical activity interventions for adolescents with depression often show limited effectiveness because of insufficient developmental tailoring, limited autonomy support and poor contextual feasibility.
The planned sample is 60 physically inactive adolescents aged 12-19 years with depression, recruited from an outpatient mental health service in Brussels, Belgium.
The intervention consists of 18 individualized physiotherapist-led counselling sessions over 12 weeks, with structured support for transitioning to community-based physical activity.
Primary outcomes are feasibility, acceptability and implementation outcomes, guided by the PRISM and RE-AIM frameworks.
Preliminary effectiveness outcomes are changes in physical activity (PAVS) and depressive symptoms (PHQ-A).
Secondary outcomes include social support, exercise self-efficacy, cardiorespiratory fitness and waist-to-height ratio.
This paper describes the plan for a study that has not yet reported results. The study will test BRIDGES, a program designed with input from teenagers and others to help physically inactive adolescents with depression become more active. Earlier exercise programs for depressed teenagers have often worked only modestly, possibly because they did not fit teenagers' developmental needs, did not support their sense of choice, or were hard to fit into real life. The pilot study plans to enrol 60 adolescents aged 12-19 from an outpatient mental health service in Brussels. Participants will be randomly assigned to the program or a comparison group. The program includes 18 one-on-one counselling sessions with a physiotherapist over 12 weeks, with help moving into physical activity in the community. Researchers will mainly look at whether the program is practical and acceptable, using questionnaires and interviews with teenagers, caregivers and community partners. They will also gather early estimates of changes in physical activity and depressive symptoms. This research suggests a way of testing whether this kind of program could work in routine mental health care. Because this is a small pilot protocol, it cannot show whether BRIDGES improves depression. Its purpose is to gather the information needed to design a larger, more definitive trial.
Upload your bloodwork. We'll cross-reference your results against this study and 4,700 others.
Upload Your LabsPhilippot A, Ibanez I, Coppens M, Eeckhout C, Cescutti C, Beine A, et al.. (2026). Bridging the gap: Implementing BRIDGES (Brussels Resilience and Inclusion for Depression - Guidance, Exercise and Support) to shape adolescent outpatient mental health care. A pilot randomized controlled study protocol.. PloS one. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0360292