Clinical trial NCT06022432: Overcoming Treatment Barriers
Official title: Overcoming Treatment Barriers: The Role of Expectations in the Behavioral Intention of Treatment Seeking for Social Anxiety
Study type: INTERVENTIONAL
Overall status: RECRUITING
Phase: NA
Conditions: Health Care Utilization
Health Care Seeking Behavior
Lead sponsor: Philipps University Marburg
Sponsor class: OTHER
First posted: 2023-09-01
Enrollment: 120
Sex: ALL
Minimum age (years): 18
Maximum age (years): 75
Standard ages: ADULT
OLDER_ADULT
Accepts healthy volunteers: yes
Allocation: RANDOMIZED
Intervention model: PARALLEL
Primary purpose: TREATMENT

Brief summary: This study aims to assess whether negative or rather the lack of positive treatment expectations could be positively influenced by online short interventions and increase intention so seek treatment and actual help-seeking behavior when compared to a no-treatment control group. Further, the study investigators like to explore if specifically focusing on intensifying positive treatment expectations vs. a reduction of expectations about negative treatment effects will influence the pattern of results differently.

Detailed description: The investigators expect that participants receiving an intervention e.g., amplifying positive (performance) expectancies vs. reducing negative (performance) expectancies of psychotherapeutic treatment, will show an increase in intentions to seek treatment and are more likely to report actual treatment-seeking behavior after the intervention when compared with participants who will describe their treatment expectations via a writing task.

Further, the investigators want to explore if the expectancy-modulating interventions will differently affect the intention to seek treatment within socially anxious individuals.

If participants agree, the investigators plan to assess changes in expectations, attitudes as well as actual treatment seeking behavior at a Follow-Up assessment one week later (data from Follow-Up will be analyzed exploratively and is not part of the main hypotheses).

Eligibility criteria: Inclusion Criteria:

* at least 18 years old
* fluent in German (C Level)
* access to a computer device with internet access

Exclusion Criteria:

* non correctable hearing or visual impairment
* current in psychotherapeutic treatment or on a waiting list
* no neurological impairment or psychotic disorders

Primary outcomes:
measure: Change in Treatment Expectations (Treatment Expectation Questionnaire, "TEX-Q")
timeFrame: At baseline (pre-measurement), immediately after intervention (post-measurement, approximately 20 minutes after beginning of study procedure) and at Follow-Up investigation (one week after post measurement)
measure: Changes in intention to seek treatment
timeFrame: At baseline (pre-measurement), immediately after intervention (post-measurement, approximately 20 minutes after beginning of study procedure) and at Follow-Up investigation (one week after post measurement)
Secondary outcomes:
measure: Intention to seek treatment (Behavioral Outcome 1)
timeFrame: After intervention (post measurement, approximately 30 minutes after beginning of study procedure)
Other outcomes:
measure: Treatment-seeking behavior (Behavioral Outcome 2)
timeFrame: At Follow-Up investigation (one week after post measurement)
Locations:
city: Marburg
country: Germany
facility: Philipps-Universität Marburg
Study officials:
References: