- ICH GCP
- US Clinical Trials Registry
- Clinical Trial NCT03973580
Using Attention Training to Reduce Adolescents' Anxious Symptoms (ABM)
Altering High-risk Trajectories in Adolescent Anxiety Via Attention Bias Modification Training: Neural Predictors and Mechanisms (ABM Study)
Study Overview
Status
Conditions
Intervention / Treatment
Detailed Description
Adolescence is a critical period for increases in anxious symptoms, potentially due to etiologically significant Attention Biases (AB) favoring threatening cues. However, the specific facets of AB that drive this vulnerability as well as their neurocognitive correlates are unclear, due in large part to the poor psychometric properties of the traditional assessment of AB in this field. By using both a standard behavioral task and a novel eye-tracking task, this study aims to unpack the nuanced facets of AB related to anxiety risks. Additionally, well-controlled Attentional Bias Modification (ABM) tasks designed to train attention away from threatening cues can be used to experimentally manipulate the causal mechanisms of interest, and to test whether ABM reduces symptoms and alters patterns of resting-state functional connectivity (rsFC, the intrinsic brain activity that occurs outside specific tasks) that characterize anxiety risks.
This study will recruit 60 11-13-year-old healthy adolescents with heightened anxious symptoms but without clinically significant anxiety disorders. They will be randomized to a six-session ABM training or a placebo task. Both before and after the training, the investigators will assess their anxious symptoms, AB, and rsFC. By examining the risk processes prior to the onset of clinically significant anxiety disorders, our work will make important new contributions to our understanding of how AB eventuates in anxiety and will have direct implications for early identification of youth at highest risk for anxiety disorders, and the targets that should be focused on in preventative efforts.
Study Type
Enrollment (Actual)
Phase
- Not Applicable
Contacts and Locations
Study Contact
- Name: Elizabeth P Hayden, Ph.D
- Phone Number: 519-661-3686
- Email: ehayden@uwo.ca
Study Locations
-
-
Ontario
-
London, Ontario, Canada, N6A 5B7
- Western University
-
-
Participation Criteria
Eligibility Criteria
Ages Eligible for Study
Accepts Healthy Volunteers
Description
Inclusion Criteria:
- English-speaking 11-13-year-old youth without significant medical, psychological, cognitive, or language impairments.
Exclusion Criteria:
- Adolescents with clinically significant anxiety disorders or conditions in conflict with MRI scanning (e.g., orthodontics) will be excluded.
Study Plan
How is the study designed?
Design Details
- Primary Purpose: Basic Science
- Allocation: Randomized
- Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
- Masking: Double
Arms and Interventions
Participant Group / Arm |
Intervention / Treatment |
---|---|
Active Comparator: Attentional Bias Modification (ABM) group
Participants in this arm will participate in a six-session ABM task, one session per week.
|
Participants will be presented with a fixation cross (500ms) followed by a pair of identity-matched, angry-neutral faces (1000ms).
The pair presentation is replaced by a single arrow-probe (1000ms) in the position of the neural face.
Inter-trial intervals (ITI) are 500ms.
Participants indicate arrow direction (left or right) by pressing one of two buttons as quickly as possible.
By responding to the probe that always replaces the neutral face, participants learn to attend to the non-threat cues and away from threat cues.
There are 120 trials of angry-neutral faces in total, and 40 other catch trials with neutral-neutral faces.
|
Placebo Comparator: Control group
Participants in this arm will participate in a six-session control task, one session per week.
|
The control task is identical with the ABM task, except that in the 120 angry-neutral trials, the arrow-probe replaces the angry face and the neutral face with equal probabilities (60 trials each).
|
What is the study measuring?
Primary Outcome Measures
Outcome Measure |
Measure Description |
Time Frame |
---|---|---|
Change from baseline in parent-reported anxious symptoms at 3 weeks follow-up
Time Frame: 3 weeks from baseline (after completing the 3rd weekly training session)
|
Parent-reported anxious symptoms will be assessed by the Child Behavior Checklist questionnaire.
The anxious syndrome subscale will be used with a score summed across the 12 items of this subscale.
Scores for each item range from 0 to 2, and scores for the subscale range from 0 to 24.
Higher scores indicate greater anxious symptoms.
|
3 weeks from baseline (after completing the 3rd weekly training session)
|
Change from baseline in parent-reported anxious symptoms at 6 weeks follow-up
Time Frame: 6 weeks from baseline (after completing the 6th weekly training session)
|
Parent-reported anxious symptoms will be assessed by the Child Behavior Checklist questionnaire.
The anxious syndrome subscale will be used with a score summed across the 12 items of this subscale.
Scores for each item range from 0 to 2, and scores for the subscale range from 0 to 24.
Higher scores indicate greater anxious symptoms.
|
6 weeks from baseline (after completing the 6th weekly training session)
|
Change from baseline in youth self-reported anxious symptoms at 3 weeks follow-up
Time Frame: 3 weeks from baseline (after completing the 3rd weekly training session)
|
Youth self-reported anxious symptoms will be assessed by the Youth Self Report questionnaire.
The anxious syndrome subscale will be used with a score summed across the 12 items of this subscale.
Scores for each item range from 0 to 2, and scores for the subscale range from 0 to 24.
Higher scores indicate greater anxious symptoms.
|
3 weeks from baseline (after completing the 3rd weekly training session)
|
Change from baseline in youth self-reported anxious symptoms at 6 weeks follow-up
Time Frame: 6 weeks from baseline (after completing the 6th weekly training session)
|
Youth self-reported anxious symptoms will be assessed by the Youth Self Report questionnaire.
The anxious syndrome subscale will be used with a score summed across the 12 items of this subscale.
Scores for each item range from 0 to 2, and scores for the subscale range from 0 to 24.
Higher scores indicate greater anxious symptoms.
|
6 weeks from baseline (after completing the 6th weekly training session)
|
Secondary Outcome Measures
Outcome Measure |
Measure Description |
Time Frame |
---|---|---|
Change from baseline in response-time-indexed Attentional Bias (AB) at 6 weeks follow-up
Time Frame: 6 weeks from baseline (after completing the 6th weekly training session)
|
This outcome will be assessed by a behavioral dot-probe task.
|
6 weeks from baseline (after completing the 6th weekly training session)
|
Change from baseline in eye-movement-indexed Attentional Bias (AB) at 6 weeks follow-up
Time Frame: 6 weeks from baseline (after completing the 6th weekly training session)
|
This outcome will be assessed by an eye-tracking task.
|
6 weeks from baseline (after completing the 6th weekly training session)
|
Change from baseline in resting-state functional connectivity (rsFC)
Time Frame: 6 weeks from baseline (after completing the 6th weekly training session)
|
rsFC will be assessed by resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI).
|
6 weeks from baseline (after completing the 6th weekly training session)
|
Collaborators and Investigators
Sponsor
Publications and helpful links
General Publications
- Beard C, Sawyer AT, Hofmann SG. Efficacy of attention bias modification using threat and appetitive stimuli: a meta-analytic review. Behav Ther. 2012 Dec;43(4):724-40. doi: 10.1016/j.beth.2012.01.002. Epub 2012 Jan 18.
- Sanchez A, Romero N, De Raedt R. Depression-related difficulties disengaging from negative faces are associated with sustained attention to negative feedback during social evaluation and predict stress recovery. PLoS One. 2017 Mar 31;12(3):e0175040. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0175040. eCollection 2017.
- Bar-Haim Y, Lamy D, Pergamin L, Bakermans-Kranenburg MJ, van IJzendoorn MH. Threat-related attentional bias in anxious and nonanxious individuals: a meta-analytic study. Psychol Bull. 2007 Jan;133(1):1-24. doi: 10.1037/0033-2909.133.1.1.
- Liu P, Taber-Thomas BC, Fu X, Perez-Edgar KE. Biobehavioral Markers of Attention Bias Modification in Temperamental Risk for Anxiety: A Randomized Control Trial. J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry. 2018 Feb;57(2):103-110. doi: 10.1016/j.jaac.2017.11.016. Epub 2017 Nov 28.
Study record dates
Study Major Dates
Study Start (Actual)
Primary Completion (Actual)
Study Completion (Actual)
Study Registration Dates
First Submitted
First Submitted That Met QC Criteria
First Posted (Actual)
Study Record Updates
Last Update Posted (Actual)
Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria
Last Verified
More Information
Terms related to this study
Keywords
Additional Relevant MeSH Terms
Other Study ID Numbers
- Western HSREB #113928
Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)
Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?
IPD Plan Description
IPD Sharing Time Frame
IPD Sharing Access Criteria
IPD Sharing Supporting Information Type
- STUDY_PROTOCOL
- SAP
- ICF
- ANALYTIC_CODE
Drug and device information, study documents
Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product
Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product
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.
Clinical Trials on Anxiety
-
Prisma Health-UpstateCompletedAnxiety | Anxiety, Separation | Separation Anxiety | Anxiety Generalized
-
AstraZenecaCompletedAnxiety Disorders | Anxiety | Anxiety Neuroses | Anxiety StatesUnited States
-
Ann & Robert H Lurie Children's Hospital of ChicagoUniversity of California, Los Angeles; University of CincinnatiRecruitingAnxiety, Separation | Anxiety, Social | Anxiety, GeneralizedUnited States
-
Yale UniversityNational Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)Active, not recruitingGeneralized Anxiety Disorder | Anxiety Disorder of Childhood | Separation Anxiety Disorder of Childhood | Social Anxiety Disorder of ChildhoodUnited States
-
Loyola UniversityCompletedAnxiety | Anxiety State | Procedural AnxietyUnited States
-
Nazife Begüm KARANCompletedDental Anxiety | Sedative; Anxiety DisorderTurkey
-
Eli Lilly and CompanyCompletedAnxiety Neuroses | Anxiety States, Neurotic | Neuroses, AnxietyUnited States, Mexico, South Africa
-
West University of TimisoaraUnknownAnxiety Disorder/Anxiety StateRomania
-
Dr. Nazanin AlaviActive, not recruitingGeneralized Anxiety Disorder | AnxietyCanada
-
ProofPilotFisher WallaceActive, not recruitingGeneralized Anxiety Disorder | Anxiety | Generalized AnxietyUnited States
Clinical Trials on Attentional Bias Modification (ABM) task
-
University of OsloUniversity of OxfordRecruitingDepressive DisorderNorway
-
University of Texas at TylerPsi Chi; Sarah Sass, PhDRecruiting
-
PsyQLeiden University Medical Center; ZonMw: The Netherlands Organisation for Health...CompletedPosttraumatic Stress DisorderNetherlands
-
University of SouthamptonNot yet recruitingChronic PainUnited Kingdom
-
Tel Aviv UniversityCompleted
-
Tel Aviv UniversityCompletedSocial Anxiety DisorderIsrael
-
Sorlandet Hospital HFUniversity of Oslo; Karolinska Institutet; University of Oxford; The Hospital of... and other collaboratorsCompleted
-
Roseli ShavittCompleted
-
Universidad Complutense de MadridMinisterio de Economía y Competitividad, SpainCompletedDepression | Cognitive Deficits | Alteration of Cognitive FunctionSpain
-
University of OsloOslo University Hospital; University of OxfordCompleted