Cognitive Biases Modification Treatment for Social Anxiety

Study Overview
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Brief Summary
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Adults with Social Phobia will be randomly assigned to either an attention bias modification treatment, interpretation bias modification treatment, both, or a placebo control condition not designed to change cognitive bias patterns. Outcome measures will be social anxiety symptoms and severity as measured by gold standard questionnaires as well as diagnosis of social phobia disorder and symptom counts derived from structured clinical interviews based on DSM-IV criteria. The investigators expect to find significant reduction in social anxiety symptoms in the Treatment groups relative to the placebo control group. The investigators want to find out the relative efficacy of attention and interpretation oriented treatments and the combination of the two.

Official Title
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Cognitive Biases Modification Treatment for Social Anxiety

Conditions
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Social Phobia

Intervention / Treatment
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* Behavioral: Attention Bias Modification Treatment (ABMT)
* Behavioral: Interpretation Bias Modification (IBM)
* Behavioral: Control Condition
* Behavioral: Attention and Interpretive biases modification (CBM)


Participation Criteria
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Eligibility Criteria
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Inclusion Criteria: People suffering from social anxiety Exclusion Criteria: Pharmacological or Psychological treatment

Ages Eligible for Study
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Minimum Age: 18 Years
Maximum Age: 65 Years

Sexes Eligible for Study
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All

Accepts Healthy Volunteers
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No

Study Plan
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How is the study designed?
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Design Details

Primary Purpose: Basic Science
Allocation: Randomized
Intervention Model: Factorial Assignment
Masking: Triple


Arms and Interventions

| Participant Group/Arm | Intervention/Treatment |
| --- | --- |
| Placebo Comparator: Placebo<br>repeated trials of a dot-probe task and repeated trials of an interpretation task, both not intended to change threat-related biases patterns. | Behavioral: Control Condition<br>* Attention and interpretation training using a computerized tasks not intended to alter threat-related biases patterns.<br>|
| Experimental: Attention Bias Modification (ABM)<br>Attention training via repeated trials of a dot-probe task intended to direct attention away from threat stimuli. | Behavioral: Attention Bias Modification Treatment (ABMT)<br>* Attention training using a computerized spatial attention task (dot-probe) modified to alter threat-related attention patterns.<br>|
| Experimental: Interpretation Bias Modification (IBM)<br>Interpretation training intended to facilitating a more benign interpretation bias | Behavioral: Interpretation Bias Modification (IBM)<br>* Interpretive Bias Modification Treatment (IBMT) using a computerized task modified to facilitate a more benign interpretation bias.<br>|
| Experimental: Attention and interpretation biases modification<br>Attention and interpretation training intended to direct cognitive biases away from threat stimulus. | Behavioral: Attention and Interpretive biases modification (CBM)<br>* Attention and interpretation training via computerized tasks intended to direct attention away from threat stimuli and to facilitate a more benign interpretation bias.<br>|

What is the study measuring?
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Primary Outcome Measures

| Outcome Measure | Measure Description | Time Frame |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Social Anxiety Scale (LSAS) - diagnostic interview | LSAS is a 24-items clinician-administered scale developed for the assessment of fear and avoidance associated with social. The LSAS assesses a wide range of both social interaction and performance/observation situations, which are rated for degree of fear/anxiety and frequency of avoidance. | Expected time frame of 6 weeks per participant. Participants will be assessed before and after the administration of the training/control protocols | 

Secondary Outcome Measures

| Outcome Measure | Measure Description | Time Frame |
| --- | --- | --- |
| The Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview (MINI). | The Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview (MINI) is a short diagnostic structured interview (DSI) developed to explore 17 disorders according to Diagnostic and Statistical Manual diagnostic criteria (DSM) | expected time frame of 6 weeks per participant. Participants will be assessed before and after the administration of the training/control protocols | 

 Terms related to the study
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Keywords Provided by Centre Hospitalier Valida
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attention bias modification treatment, interpretive bias modification, cognitive bias modification, attention training, social anxiety