Attention Bias Modification Treatment (ABMT) for Anxiety Disorders in Youth Who do Not Respond to CBT

Summary

First-line psychosocial treatments for anxiety disorders in children are largely exposure-based cognitive behavioral therapies (CBTs). Despite strong evidence supporting CBT's efficacy, for up to 50% of youth patients, symptoms of anxiety persist after a full course of treatment. What are the treatment options for these youth? Unfortunately, there is not a single empirical study in the youth anxiety treatment literature that has systematically examined treatment augmentation for youth who fail to respond to CBT. Empirical efforts to address this issue are important because youth who do not respond to CBT continue to suffer emotional distress and impairment associated with anxiety disorders. This study will address this gap via double-blind randomized controlled trial of Attention Bias Modification Treatment (ABMT) for anxious 10-18 year-olds who did not respond to standard CBT. Attention biases in threat processing have been assigned a prominent role in the etiology and maintenance of anxiety disorders. ABMT utilizes computer-based protocols to implicitly modify biased attentional patterns in anxious patients. Here, participants will be CBT non-responders who will be assessed by using clinical interviews and parent- and self-rated questionnaires before and after eight sessions of ABMT or placebo control, and again at an eight-week follow-up. We expect to see reduction in anxiety symptoms in the Attention Bias Modification Treatment (ABMT) group relative to the placebo control group. We also expect the findings to inform pathways to treatments for anxious children who do not respond to current standard first-line therapy, and to provide initial information on mechanisms of ABMT efficacy.

Conditions

• Anxiety Disorders

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

Attention bias modification treatment (ABMT)

Attention training using a computerized spatial attention task (dot-probe) modified to alter threat-related attention patterns using threat and neutral stimuli.

BEHAVIORAL

Attention Control Condition

Attention training using a computerized spatial attention task (dot-probe) not intended to alter threat-related attention patterns using only neutral stimuli.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• United States - Israel Binational Science Foundation

  collaborator OTHER

• Schneider Children's Hospital

  collaborator OTHER

• Sheba Medical Center

  collaborator OTHER_GOV

• Yair Bar-Haim

  lead OTHER

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

TREATMENT

Masking

DOUBLE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

10 Years

Max Age

18 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2015-01-31

Primary Completion

2019-07-31

Completion

2019-07-31

Countries

• Israel

Study Locations