Clinical trial NCT02909660: What Are You Looking for? Psychometric and Experimental Analyses of Reassurance Seeking in Obsessive-compulsive Disorder
Official title: What Are You Looking for? Psychometric and Experimental Analyses of Reassurance Seeking in Obsessive-compulsive Disorder
Study type: INTERVENTIONAL
Overall status: TERMINATED
Phase: NA
Conditions: Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder
Lead sponsor: Concordia University, Montreal
Sponsor class: OTHER
First posted: 2016-09-21
Enrollment: 7
Sex: ALL
Minimum age (years): 18
Standard ages: ADULT
OLDER_ADULT
Accepts healthy volunteers: no
Allocation: RANDOMIZED
Intervention model: PARALLEL
Primary purpose: TREATMENT

Brief summary: This study evaluates the efficacy and acceptability of two cognitive-behavioural interventions for reassurance seeking behaviour in obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), a family accommodation reduction protocol vs. a novel support-seeking protocol. Half of participants will be randomly assigned to participate in the support-seeking intervention, whereas the other half will participate in the family accommodation reduction intervention.

Detailed description: An existing family accommodation reduction intervention to reduce reassurance seeking behaviour in OCD (which represents treatment as usual, or TAU) is being compared to a novel support-seeking intervention to determine which is more efficacious and acceptable to participants.

The TAU protocol asks participants to make an agreement with their significant others to withhold reassurance when it is sought. It is believed that this behaviourally-based intervention encourages extinction of reassurance seeking over time by eliminating reinforcement of the behaviour by significant others.

The support-seeking intervention asks participants to move towards adaptively seeking support from a significant other to manage anxiety or distress rather than seeking reassurance. Significant others are taught to provide support rather than reassurance. It is believed that support-seeking may reduce reassurance seeking behaviour because it helps participants manage the anxiety or distress that underlies the requests for reassurance without interfering with disconfirmatory learning.

Eligibility criteria: Inclusion Criteria:

* Diagnosis of OCD
* Engaging in reassurance seeking more than once a day about the same thing
* Willingness to allow the experimenter to contact a significant other from whom the participant seeks reassurance regularly
* Ability to read, write, and communicate in English

Exclusion Criteria:

* Current suicidal ideation/intent
* Current substance abuse
* Psychosis
* Diagnosis of bipolar disorder (I or II)
* If participants are on medication they must be on a stable dose (i.e., have maintained a consistent dose for at least three months) and agree not to change their medication regimen for the duration of the study

Primary outcomes:
measure: Self-reported reassurance seeking behaviour
timeFrame: 5 weeks (baseline through 3 week follow-up)
measure: Self-reported support-seeking behaviour
timeFrame: 4 weeks (condition assignment through 3 week follow-up)
measure: Self-reported anxiety
timeFrame: 5 weeks (baseline monitoring through 3 week follow-up)
measure: One-week follow-up: Treatment Acceptability and Adherence Scale (TAAS; Milosevic, Levy, Alcolado, & Radomsky, 2015)
timeFrame: One-week follow-up
measure: One-week follow-up: Endorsement and Discomfort Scales (EDS; Tarrier, Liversidge, & Gregg, 2006)
timeFrame: One-week follow-up
measure: Three-week follow-up: Treatment Acceptability and Adherence Scale (TAAS; Milosevic, Levy, Alcolado, & Radomsky, 2015)
timeFrame: Three-week follow-up
measure: Three-week follow-up: Endorsement and Discomfort Scales (EDS; Tarrier, Liversidge, & Gregg, 2006)
timeFrame: Three-week follow-up
Secondary outcomes:
measure: Change in self-reported reassurance-seeking
timeFrame: Baseline to one-week follow-up and baseline to three-week follow-up
measure: Change in anxiety
timeFrame: Baseline (monitoring week 1) to end of reassurance provision week (monitoring week 2)
Other outcomes:
Locations:
city: Montreal
country: Canada
facility: Concordia University
state: Quebec
Study officials:
References: