Attention Bias Modification Treatment (ABMT) for Patients With Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)

Study Overview
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Brief Summary
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Patients with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) will be randomly assigned to either Attention Bias Modification Treatment (ABMT) designed to normalize threat-related attention biases or a placebo control condition not designed to change attention patterns. Outcome measures will be Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), depression, and anxiety symptoms as measured by gold standard questionnaires and symptom counts derived from structured clinical interviews. We expect to see significant Post Traumatic Stress Disorder symptom reduction in the Attention Bias Modification Treatment (ABMT) group relative to the placebo control group in which no symptomatic relief is expected.

Official Title
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Attention Bias Modification Treatment (ABMT) for Patients With Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)

Conditions
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Attention Bias Modification Treatment (ABMT)

Intervention / Treatment
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* Behavioral: Attention Bias Modification Treatment (ABMT)


Participation Criteria
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Eligibility Criteria
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Inclusion Criteria: Combat-related PTSD diagnosis Exclusion Criteria: Other treatment
Sexes Eligible for Study
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Male

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: Quadruple


Arms and Interventions

| Participant Group/Arm | Intervention/Treatment |
| --- | --- |
| Experimental: Attention Bias Modification (ABM)<br>Attention training via repeated trials of a dot-probe task intended to normalize threat-related attention biases. | 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>|
| Placebo Comparator: Placebo<br>Attention training via repeated trials of a dot-probe task not intended to change threat-related attention patterns. | 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>|

What is the study measuring?
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Primary Outcome Measures

| Outcome Measure | Measure Description | Time Frame |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Clinician-Administered PTSD Scale (CAPS) | The clinician-Administered PTSD Scale (CAPS) is a 30-item structured interview that corresponds to the DSM-IV criteria for PTSD (Blake, Weathers, Nagy, Kaloupek, Charney, & Keane, 1995). | 40 minutes | 

Secondary Outcome Measures

| Outcome Measure | Measure Description | Time Frame |
| --- | --- | --- |
| PTSD Check List (PCL) | Post-traumatic Stress symptoms will be evaluated using the 17-item National Center for PTSD Checklist of the Department of Veterans Affairs- PCL (Blanchard, Jones-Alexander, Buckley, & Forneris, 1996; Hoge, 2004; Kang, Natelson, Mahan, Lee, & Murphy, 2003). | 10 minutes | 

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