Emotional Association Bias Modification Training in Individuals With IGD

Efficacy and Mechanisms Underlying Emotional Association Bias Modification in Individuals With IGD

This project aims to investigate (1) the efficacy of emotional association bias modification (EABM) training on internet gaming disorder (IGD); (2) the underlying neural mechanisms of such efficacy

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Internet Gaming Disorder
• Intervention / Treatment: Procedure: EABM training; Procedure: sham training

Detailed Description

As with the efficacy, the experiment aims to test whether EABM training will reduce positive emotional association bias towards gaming, compulsive choice of gaming pictures, cue-induced craving for gaming, the severity of gaming behaviors in individuals with IGD.

As with the underlying neural mechanisms, the experiment aims to test whether EABM training will alter the activation of reward circuits in response to gaming pictures, the activation of executive control network (mainly refering to the prefrontal cortex) regarding regulation ability for craving and response inhibition ability.

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 87
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• China
  • Beijing
    • Beijing, Beijing, China, 100875
      • State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning, Beijing Normal University

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 18 years to 30 years (ADULT)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No
• Genders Eligible for Study: All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

1. the 5th edition of Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5 ) recommended diagnosis of Internet gaming disorder :

   the scores of the 9 items of DSM-5 recommended diagnosis for Internet gaming disorder ≥ 5.

   engagement in popular Internet games (e.g. Arena of Valor, League of Legends and Player Unknown's Battle Grounds) for over 20 hours per week for a minimum of 12 months.

2. the scores of the Young-Internet addiction Test ≥ 50

Exclusion Criteria:

1. current or history of use of illegal substances and other addictions;
2. current or history of psychiatric or neurological illness;
3. current use of psychotropic medications.

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: BASIC_SCIENCE
• Allocation: RANDOMIZED
• Interventional Model: PARALLEL
• Masking: DOUBLE

Number of Arms

2

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
EXPERIMENTAL: EABM training group; about 40 individuals with IGD will be randomly assigned to the EABM training group	Procedure: EABM training; The training aims at associating gaming pictures with negative words and pictures of healthy activities with positive words. Gaming pictures are always presented with a pair of negative words. Pictures of healthy activities are always presented with a pair of positive words. Each picture is presented with a fixed pair of words. Participants will be instructed to select one word to get the most monetary reward. Specifically, in response to each gaming picture, selecting one word will have a 70% chance to get a monetary reward and the other word will have a 30% chance to get a monetary reward. A similar rationale applies to the pictures of healthy activities. The reward setting will help consolidate target associations. Each training session includes 300 times/trials of each type of association, presented in pseudorandom way. The whole training includes 6 training sessions. Participants will receive one training session every days.
PLACEBO_COMPARATOR: Control training group; about another 40 individuals with IGD will be randomly assigned to the control training group	Procedure: sham training; In the control group, neutral words instead of emotional words are used. All other settings are the same with those in the intervention group

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Changes in gaming-related positive emotional association biases (EAB)	The gaming-related positive EAB will be assessed in a priming task. In the task, participants will be instructed to judge the emotional valence of positive or negative words following gaming pictures or healthy-activity pictures. Gaming-related positive EAB will be calculated by determining differences in reaction times (RTs; RTs (negative-word) minus RTs (positive-word)) in response to words following gaming pictures	baseline , the 1st day after training
Changes in gaming-related compulsive thoughts	the scores of gaming-related compulsive thoughts will be assessed with the Yale-Brown Obsessive-Compulsive Scale modified for internet gaming disorder. The range of the score concerning gaming-related compulsive thoughts of this scale is from 0 to 20. Higher scores means more gaming-related compulsive thoughts.	baseline, the 1st week after training, the 2nd week after training, the 3rd week after training, the 4th week after training, the 6th week after training, the 8th week after training
Changes in gaming-related compulsive behaviors	the scores of gaming-related compulsive behaviors will be assessed with the Yale-Brown Obsessive-Compulsive Scale modified for internet gaming disorder. The range of the score concerning gaming-related compulsive behaviors of this scale is from 0 to 20. Higher scores means more gaming-related compulsive behaviors.	baseline, the 1st week after training, the 2nd week after training, the 3rd week after training, the 4th week after training, the 6th week after training, the 8th week after training

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Changes in positive healthy-activity-related EAB	The healthy-activity-related positive EAB will be assessed in a priming task. In the task, participants will be instructed to judge the emotional valence of positive or negative words following gaming pictures or healthy-activity pictures. Healthy-activity-related positive EAB will be calculated by determining differences in reaction times (RTs; RTs (negative-word) minus RTs (positive-word)) in response to words following healthy-activity pictures	baseline and the 1st day after training
Changes in IGD severity	The scores of IGD severity will be assessed with the internet addiction test for internet gaming disorder. The range of the score of this scale is from 20 to 100. Higher scores means severer internet gaming disorder.	baseline, the 4th week after training, the 8th week after training
Changes in weekly gaming time	weekly gaming time will be assessed by instructing participants to report weekly gaming hour in a questionaire	baseline, the 1st week after training, the 2nd week after training, the 3rd week after training, the 4th week after training, the 6th week after training, the 8th week after training
Changes in craving	In the regulation-of-craving task, participants will report gaming-related craving during look condition, and during regulation condition using cognitive reappraisal，respectively. Craving will be assessed using a Visual Analog Scale (from 1 = 'not at all' to 9 = 'very high')	baseline , the 1st day after training

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Beijing Normal University

Publications and helpful links

General Publications

• Snagowski J, Wegmann E, Pekal J, Laier C, Brand M. Implicit associations in cybersex addiction: Adaption of an Implicit Association Test with pornographic pictures. Addict Behav. 2015 Oct;49:7-12. doi: 10.1016/j.addbeh.2015.05.009. Epub 2015 May 16.

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (ACTUAL): August 23, 2019
• Primary Completion (ACTUAL): February 28, 2020
• Study Completion (ACTUAL): February 28, 2020

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: August 20, 2019
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: August 23, 2019
• First Posted (ACTUAL): August 28, 2019

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (ACTUAL): July 5, 2022
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: June 30, 2022
• Last Verified: June 1, 2022

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Compulsive Behavior; Impulsive Behavior; Behavior, Addictive; Internet Addiction Disorder
• Other Study ID Numbers: EABMT_IGD

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: YES
• IPD Plan Description: we will share individual participant data when required
• IPD Sharing Time Frame: 1 year after the publication of related paper , for 3 years
• IPD Sharing Access Criteria: By contacting the principal investigator. Email : zhangjintao@bnu.edu.cn
• IPD Sharing Supporting Information Type: STUDY_PROTOCOL; SAP; ICF; ANALYTIC_CODE; CSR

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No