Clinical trial NCT05245370: Modifying Treatment Expectations in Depression: the Role of Social Learning
Official title: Social Learning Trial: Using Patient and Clinician Testimonials to Modify Treatment Expectations and Placebo Treatments in Depression
Study type: INTERVENTIONAL
Overall status: COMPLETED
Phase: NA
Conditions: Health Care Utilization
Keywords: treatment expectations
social learning
psychotherapy
depression
testimonials
Lead sponsor: Philipps University Marburg
Sponsor class: OTHER
First posted: 2022-02-17
Enrollment: 171
Sex: ALL
Minimum age (years): 18
Standard ages: ADULT
OLDER_ADULT
Accepts healthy volunteers: yes
Allocation: RANDOMIZED
Intervention model: FACTORIAL
Primary purpose: BASIC_SCIENCE

Brief summary: Research has shown that treatment expectations play a major role in the course of mental disorders and that positive expectations have a beneficial impact on treatment outcomes. Expectations can develop in different ways, whereby an emerging body of research has shown that social learning plays a significant role in this process. To date, most studies have investigated the impact of social learning on treatment expectations in the context of pain relief. Little is known about the impact of social learning in the psychotherapeutic treatment of depression. Therefore, this study investigates whether treatment expectations regarding the treatment of depression can be modulated via social learning, i.e., showing positive treatment testimonials.

Hypotheses:

H1: The investigators predict that individuals who are provided with treatment testimonials (experimental groups) show a greater change toward positive treatment expectations compared to individuals who do not view such testimonials (control groups).

H2: The investigators predict that individuals provided with treatment testimonials will, compared to the control groups, show a greater change in secondary outcome variables in the following ways: a greater decrease in perceived uncertainty/ barriers; a greater decrease in stigma/ negative attitudes toward psychotherapy; a greater increase in intentions to seek therapy; a greater willingness to try the specific technique described in the videos.

H3: Inter-individual differences in the effect of provided testimonials are associated with pre-existing factors: level of depressive symptoms; intolerance of uncertainty; treatment experience; locus of control; general self-efficacy; dispositional optimism and cognitive immunization tendencies.

Exploratory questions:

1. An exploratory aim of this study is to assess whether viewing different types of testimonials (clinician delivered; patient-delivered; combination of both) has differential effects on treatment expectation change.
2. Furthermore, the investigators want to assess whether implicit treatment expectations change in a similar pattern as explicit treatment expectations.
3. Based on the results of H1 and H2, the investigators aim to assess possible mechanisms of change: e.g. assess whether a change in treatment expectations is mediated by a decrease in perceived uncertainty or a change in stigma/ attitudes toward therapy.


Eligibility criteria: Inclusion Criteria:

* at least 18 years old
* be able understand German (at least B1 level)
* have access to a computer device with internet access

Exclusion Criteria:

* age below 18 years old
* non correctable hearing or visual impairment

Primary outcomes:
measure: Change from baseline in scores on the Credibility and Expectancy Questionnaire (CEQ) scale
timeFrame: Baseline; post-Intervention (1 day after baseline, after viewing the intervention videos)
Secondary outcomes:
measure: Change from baseline in scores on the Treatment Expectation Questionnaire (TEX-Q)
timeFrame: Baseline; post-Intervention (1 day after baseline, after viewing the intervention videos)
measure: Change from baseline in scores on the subscale for treatment expectations of the the generic rating scale for previous treatment experiences, treatment expectations, and treatment effects (GEEE)
timeFrame: Baseline; post-Intervention (1 day after baseline, after viewing the intervention videos)
measure: Change from baseline in D-Scores on the Single-Category Implicit Associations Test (SC-IAT)
timeFrame: Baseline; post-Intervention (1 day after baseline, after viewing the intervention videos)
measure: Change from baseline in scores on the Credibility and Personal Reaction Scale
timeFrame: Baseline; post-Intervention (1 day after baseline, after viewing the intervention videos)
measure: Change from baseline in scores on perceived uncertainty and perceived barriers to psychotherapy
timeFrame: Baseline; post-Intervention (1 day after baseline, after viewing the intervention videos)
measure: Change from baseline in scores on the Perceived Stigma subscale of the Depression Stigma Scale (DSS)
timeFrame: Baseline; post-Intervention (1 day after baseline, after viewing the intervention videos)
measure: Change from baseline in scores on the Self-Stigma of Depressions Scale (SSDS)
timeFrame: Baseline; post-Intervention (1 day after baseline, after viewing the intervention videos)
measure: Change from baseline in scores on the attitudes towards seeking professional psychological help scale (ATTSPPH-SF)
timeFrame: Baseline; post-Intervention (1 day after baseline, after viewing the intervention videos)
Other outcomes:
measure: Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9)
timeFrame: Baseline
measure: General Self-Efficacy Scale (GSE)
timeFrame: Baseline
measure: Empathy on the Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI)
timeFrame: Baseline
measure: Locus of control perceptions/ "Internale-Externale-Kontrollüberzeugungen-4" (IE-4)
timeFrame: Baseline
measure: Trait uncertainty intolerance/"Unsicherheitsintoleranzfragebogen" (UI-18)
timeFrame: Baseline
measure: Cognitive immunization tendencies on the Immunization Scale (IMS)
timeFrame: Baseline
measure: Behavioral proxy variable: Intentions to try a specific technique described in the videos
timeFrame: Post-Intervention (1 day after baseline, after viewing the intervention videos)
measure: Warmth and competence ratings of the actors shown in the videos
timeFrame: Post-Intervention (1 day after baseline, directly after viewing the intervention videos)
measure: Previous treatment experiences on the subscale for previous treatment experiences of the generic rating scale for previous treatment experiences, treatment expectations, and treatment effects (GEEE)
timeFrame: Baseline
Locations:
city: Marburg
country: Germany
facility: Department of Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, Philipps-University Marburg
Study officials:
affiliation: Department of Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, Philipps-University Marburg, Germany, 35032
name: Winfried Rief
role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR
References: