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Attention Bias Modification for Anxiety: A Randomized Control Trial With Biomarkers

NCT02200003 · Status: COMPLETED · Phase: PHASE2 · Type: INTERVENTIONAL · Enrollment: 100

Last updated 2018-08-01

No results posted yet for this study

Summary

Computer-based attention bias modification treatment (ABMT), which is brief, cost-effective, and easy to administer, targets a key mechanism in pathological anxiety - the threat bias, or exaggerated attention feared or threatening stimuli. It remains unclear how and for whom ABMT is effective, limiting clinical translation. The proposed research involves an RCT using a highly sensitive measure of neurocognitive functioning, scalp-recorded event-related potentials (ERPs), to delineate key mechanisms of an emerging treatment for anxiety. Researchers will recruit 90 anxious participants to engage in the study and pursue the following three specific aims: Aim 1 will examine relations between neural and behavioral responses to threat prior to ABMT. Aim 2 will examine the effects of ABMT on ERPs to threat, threat bias, and anxiety. Aim 3 will examine relations between ERP responses to threat and reductions in threat bias and anxiety. Researchers will test whether post-training neural changes, specified in Aim 2, are associated with reductions in behavioral threat bias and anxiety severity. Researchers will also explore whether ERP measures of greater attention capture and/or reduced control of attention to threat at baseline predict treatment response, helping identify which patients will benefit most from ABMT. Through the innovative combination of a highly sensitive neurocognitive measure and an RCT design, this study aims to delineate core neurocognitive responses to threat as mechanisms in the remediation of anxiety. Confirmation of study hypotheses would, ultimately, accelerate the pace of development of more biologically-informed, accessible, and targeted interventions for anxiety.

Conditions

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

attention bias modification for anxiety

Sponsors & Collaborators

  • Hunter College of City University of New York

    lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

  • Tracy Dennis, Ph.D. · Hunter College of The City University of New York

Study Design

Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Purpose
TREATMENT
Masking
TRIPLE
Model
SINGLE_GROUP

Eligibility

Min Age
18 Years
Max Age
40 Years
Sex
ALL
Healthy Volunteers
No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start
2015-02-28
Primary Completion
2018-06-30
Completion
2018-07-31

Countries

  • United States

Study Locations

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Entities

Diseases

Read the full study record

This page highlights key information. For complete eligibility criteria, study locations, investigator contacts, and the full protocol, visit the original record on ClinicalTrials.gov.

View NCT02200003 on ClinicalTrials.gov