Clinical trial NCT03414619: The Role of Cognitive Control in the Transdiagnostic Conceptualization of "Intrusive Thoughts"
Official title: The Role of Cognitive Control in the Transdiagnostic Conceptualization of "Intrusive Thoughts"
Study type: INTERVENTIONAL
Overall status: COMPLETED
Phase: NA
Conditions: Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder
Generalized Anxiety Disorder
Major Depressive Disorder
Keywords: OCD
GAD
MDD
Rumination
Obsession
Worry
Lead sponsor: Massachusetts General Hospital
Sponsor class: OTHER
Collaborators: name: Health Resources in Action, Inc.
First posted: 2018-01-30
Enrollment: 75
Sex: ALL
Minimum age (years): 18
Standard ages: ADULT
OLDER_ADULT
Accepts healthy volunteers: yes
Allocation: NON_RANDOMIZED
Intervention model: PARALLEL
Intervention model description: The current study has two diagnostic arms (the Intrusive Thoughts group and the Non-Psychiatric Control group) all receiving a single interventional protocol.
Primary purpose: DIAGNOSTIC

Brief summary: The investigators are examining whether difficulties with cognitive control (i.e., the ability to stop one's thought process and shift attention) is a common problem across three types of repetitive, negative thinking: obsessions (as seen in obsessive compulsive disorder, OCD), worries (as seen in generalized anxiety disorder, GAD), and ruminations (as seen in major depressive disorder, MDD).

Detailed description: The primary aims of this study are to utilize self-report and behavioral measures to examine whether cognitive control is a common factor across three types of repetitive negative thinking (RNT): obsessions in OCD, worries in GAD, and ruminations in MDD. Specifically, the investigators aim to test whether individuals with obsessions, worries, and depressive ruminations demonstrate impaired cognitive control on executive functioning neuropsychological tasks (i.e., response inhibition, set shifting, attentional disengagement) relative to individuals without any psychiatric diagnoses. Additionally, the investigators will examine whether these deficits are associated with self-report measures of RNT as well as in vivo responding during a laboratory paradigm designed to induce intrusive thinking. Findings could inform psychological treatment of these problematic intrusions using novel transdiagnostic approaches.

Eligibility criteria: Inclusion Criteria:

1. Adults (age 18+)
2. Intrusive thoughts group: Clinically significant intrusive thought in the domain of obsessions, worries, or depressive ruminations with a score above the clinical mean (≥ 37) on the trait repetitive negative thinking measure (Perseverative Thinking Questionnaire, PTQ)
3. Non-psychiatric control (NPC) group: A score 1 SD below the community mean (≤ 15) on the trait repetitive negative thinking measure (PTQ)
4. Sufficient fluency of English to understand study procedures and questionnaires
5. Ability to provide informed consent.
6. Comfortable and capable of using a computer and completing reaction-time tasks.

Exclusion Criteria:

1. Acute psychosis, mania, or suicidality
2. Diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD; in order to preserve diagnostic clarity of the domains of intrusive thoughts under investigation)
3. Serious neurological disorder or impairment (e.g., brain damage, blindness), attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), intellectual disability, or autism.

Primary outcomes:
measure: Commission Errors on the Go/No Go Task
timeFrame: Day 1
measure: Response time on the Stroop Color Word Test
timeFrame: Day 1
measure: Perseverative Errors on the Wisconsin Card Sort Test
timeFrame: Day 1
measure: Gaze latency on the Attentional Engagement-Disengagement Task
timeFrame: Day 1
Secondary outcomes:
measure: Perseverative Thinking Questionnaire (PTQ)
timeFrame: Day 1
measure: State measure of intrusive thinking
timeFrame: Day 1
Other outcomes:
Locations:
city: Boston
country: United States
facility: Massachusetts General Hospital
state: Massachusetts
Study officials:
affiliation: Massachusetts General Hospital
name: Ryan J Jacoby, Ph.D.
role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR
References: