Psychological Treatments for Scleroderma

August 8, 2017 updated by: Johns Hopkins University

Psychosocial Interventions for Scleroderma

This study will examine the effectiveness of two psychological treatment approaches designed to help people who have scleroderma with three important areas of daily living: pain, depression, and distress about changes in appearance. The study will also evaluate the impact of depression on the two psychological treatments. Because psychological approaches requiring a trained professional can be expensive and are often not available to most patients, this study will also look at the effectiveness of a self-help treatment approach.

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

This study will examine the efficacy of psychological interventions designed to target important areas of daily living for people with scleroderma: pain, depression, and distress about disfigurement. The study will also examine the effect of clinical depression on impact of the psychological treatments. Because psychological interventions requiring a trained professional can be costly and are often not available to the majority of patients, the study will also examine the efficacy of a self-help intervention.

The study will recruit 201 patients with systemic sclerosis who report symptoms of pain, depression, or distress about disfigurement and will randomly assign them to one of three interventions: individual cognitive behavioral therapy, self-help cognitive behavioral intervention facilitated by a psychologist, or a disease/health education intervention. An individual blinded to intervention assignment will collect measures of pain, functioning, distress about disfigurement, and mood at baseline and following the 8-week intervention period.

Both the cognitive-behavioral self-help materials and the educational materials (eight written chapters and audiotapes) will be designed for home use but will be supplemented by two individual sessions and two telephone contacts with the professional. Patients will be followed for 1 year after completing the active intervention phase.

These findings will increase understanding of the quality of life of individuals with scleroderma and determine whether self-help interventions can be used effectively to manage pain, depression, and distress about disfigurement.

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

89

Phase

  • Phase 2

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

  • United States
    • Maryland
      • Baltimore, Maryland, United States, 21224
        • Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

18 years to 85 years (Adult, Older Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Genders Eligible for Study

All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Diagnosis of CREST or systemic sclerosis
  • Short-Form McGill Pain Questionnaire score 6 or higher
  • Satisfaction with Appearance score of 15 or higher
  • Beck Depression score of 10 or higher

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Patients reporting severe depression with suicidal ideation
  • Delirium, dementia, or cognitive impairment (Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE) < 24))
  • Terminal illness with a life expectancy of less than 1 year

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Treatment
  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
  • Masking: None (Open Label)

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: 1
Participants will receive individual cognitive behavioral therapy
Behavioral: Cognitive behavioral therapy
Experimental: 2
Participants will receive self-help cognitive behavioral intervention facilitated by a psychologist
Behavioral: Self-help cognitive behavioral intervention facilitated by a psychologist
Active Comparator: 3
Participants will receive a disease/health education intervention
Behavioral: Disease/health education

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Time Frame
Depressive symptoms
Time Frame: Measured at Week 8
Measured at Week 8

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Time Frame
Body image dissatisfaction
Time Frame: Measured at Week 8
Measured at Week 8
Pain
Time Frame: Measured at Week 8
Measured at Week 8

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

Johns Hopkins University

Collaborators

National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (NIAMS)

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Jennifer A. Haythornthwaite, Johns Hopkins University

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

General Publications

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start

June 1, 2001

Primary Completion (Actual)

June 1, 2006

Study Completion (Actual)

June 1, 2006

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

December 16, 2000

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

December 16, 2000

First Posted (Estimate)

December 18, 2000

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

August 9, 2017

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

August 8, 2017

Last Verified

August 1, 2017

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • R01AR047219 (U.S. NIH Grant/Contract)
  • NIAMS-056

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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