Home-Delivered Attention Control Treatment for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
Condition: PTSD
MeSH terms: Stress Disorders, Traumatic; Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic
Study type: Interventional

Summary: 
      The aim of the study is to explore the efficacy of home-delivered Attention Control Training
      (ACT) for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).

      Three randomized controlled trials have shown that attention bias modification protocols
      applying attention control training (ACT) aimed to balance attention between threat-related
      and neutral stimuli are efficient in reducing PTSD symptoms. However, contrary to in-clinic
      administration, such as applied in the above mentioned studies, home-delivered attention bias
      modification was not effective in reducing symptoms among treatment-seeking patients.

      It is crucial to continue examining the efficacy of home-delivered ACT as PTSD entails
      functional impairments that might impede treatment-seeking patients from reaching to clinics
      to receive treatment. This could also inform other ABM protocols designated to treat other
      disorders.
    

Detailed description: 
      The aim of the study is to explore the efficacy of home-delivered Attention Control Training
      (ACT) for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).

      Three randomized controlled trials have shown that attention bias modification (ABM)
      protocols applying attention control training (ACT) aimed to balance attention between
      threat-related and neutral stimuli are efficient in reducing PTSD symptoms. However, contrary
      to in-clinic administration, such as applied in the above mentioned studies, home-delivered
      ABM was not effective in reducing symptoms among treatment-seeking patients.

      It is crucial to continue examining the efficacy of home-delivered ACT as PTSD entails
      functional impairments that might impede treatment-seeking patients from reaching to clinics
      to receive treatment. This could also inform other ABM protocols designated to treat other
      disorders.

      To overcome some critical differences between home and lab environments, the investigators
      developed a home-delivered ACT protocol that resembles as much as possible the typical-in-lab
      protocol. Specifically, participants will be accompanied during their training sessions using
      internet-based video conference, permitting a better control for the physical environment
      before and during the session and a direct interaction with the experimenters.

      To test its efficacy, the investigators will recruit participants that are diagnosed with
      PTSD and will be randomly assigned to one of two home-delivered conditions: ACT and a control
      ABM condition. It is hypothesized that home-delivered ACT will produce greater reduction in
      PTSD symptoms relative to a control ABM protocol. It is also expected that ACT will reduce
      attention bias variability to a greater extent compared to the control condition.
    

Intervention name(s): Attention Control Training (ACT); Attention Bias Modification (ABM)
Intervention type(s): Behavioral; Behavioral
Intervention description(s): A home-delivered version of ACT will be administered in this study. ACT will be comprised of 8 sessions with a variation of the dot-probe task in which the target probe replaces the neutral and threat stimuli with an equal probability to reduce attention bias variability (ABV). In addition, sessions will include video conference with the experimenter. This condition has found to be more effective in PTSD symptom reduction compared to ABM.; A home-delivered version of ABM will be administered in this study. ABM will be comprised of 8 sessions with a variation of the dot-probe task in which the target probe always replaces the threat stimuli to induce diversion of attention away from threat. In addition, sessions will include video conference with the experimenter. This condition has found to be have an inferior effect on PTSD symptom reduction compared to ACT, and thus, this ABM condition has been chosen as a control condition.
Allocation: Randomized
Intervention model: Parallel Assignment
Masking: Quadruple (Participant, Care Provider, Investigator, Outcomes Assessor)
Primary purpose: Treatment
Keywords: PTSD; attention training; cognitive bias modification; home-delivered intervention