Clinical trial NCT03634709: Autobiographical Memory Flexibility Training (MemFlex) for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder
Official title: A Randomised Controlled Trial of Autobiographical Memory Flexibility Training (MemFlex) for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder
Study type: INTERVENTIONAL
Overall status: COMPLETED
Phase: NA
Conditions: Post Traumatic Stress Disorder
Lead sponsor: Medical Research Council Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit
Sponsor class: OTHER_GOV
Collaborators: name: Institute for Cognitive Science Studies, Iran
name: Kharazmi University
First posted: 2018-08-16
Enrollment: 40
Sex: ALL
Minimum age (years): 18
Maximum age (years): 65
Standard ages: ADULT
OLDER_ADULT
Accepts healthy volunteers: no
Allocation: RANDOMIZED
Intervention model: PARALLEL
Intervention model description: Single blind, randomized controlled trial comparing active intervention to waitlist control
Primary purpose: TREATMENT

Brief summary: The experience of trauma not only impacts the way an individual thinks and feels, but can also produce changes in the way someone remembers their personal past. It is not only memories of the trauma that are affected- avoidance of trauma memories can also lead to memories of other events becoming vague, and in particular, memories of positive experiences can seem out of reach. This memory difficulty promotes posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). This study will explore an intervention that aims to improve memory difficulties, which should then flow on to improve PTSD. The study will be completed with individuals who have experienced a single incident trauma. Twenty five participants will complete MemFlex straight away, and 25 will go on a waiting list. Once this first group has finished MemFlex, the researchers will compare the two groups to see if the programme produced a larger reduction in PTSD symptoms. MemFlex is workbook-based, and as such, if it is successful it may offer an easy, cheap, and accessible way to offer psychological treatment to PTSD sufferers around the world.


Eligibility criteria: Inclusion Criteria:

* Diagnosis of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (as indexed by the Farsi version of the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM disorders \[SCID\])
* Aged over 18 years

Exclusion Criteria:

* Lack of oral and/or written fluency in Farsi
* Traumatic brain injury or cognitive impairment, indexed via self-report
* Current experience of psychosis, indexed by SCID

Primary outcomes:
measure: Autobiographical memory
timeFrame: At post-intervention assessment (approximately 4-5 weeks after pre-intervention assessment)
Secondary outcomes:
measure: PTSD symptoms at post-intervention
timeFrame: At post-intervention assessment (approximately 4-5 weeks after pre-intervention assessment)
measure: PTSD symptoms at follow-up
timeFrame: Three months following the completion of the intervention
Other outcomes:
measure: Posttraumatic Cognitions
timeFrame: At post-intervention assessment (approximately 4-5 weeks after pre-intervention assessment)
measure: Trauma memory quality
timeFrame: At post-intervention assessment (approximately 4-5 weeks after pre-intervention assessment)
measure: Rumination
timeFrame: At post-intervention assessment (approximately 4-5 weeks after pre-intervention assessment)
measure: Depression
timeFrame: At post-intervention assessment (approximately 4-5 weeks after pre-intervention assessment)
measure: Future Thinking
timeFrame: At post-intervention assessment (approximately 4-5 weeks after pre-intervention assessment)
Locations:
city: Tehran
country: Iran, Islamic Republic of
facility: Institute for Cognitive Science Studies
Study officials:
References: