Assessing the Impact of Weighted Blankets on Anxiety Among Inpatients With Anorexia Nervosa: a Study Protocol

December 5, 2019 updated by: Rachel Ohene, Denver Health and Hospital Authority

A Randomized Control Trial to Assess the Impact of Weighted Blankets on Anxiety Among Inpatients With Anorexia Nervosa and Avoidant Restrictive Food Intake Disorder: a Study Protocol

The aim of this study is to conduct a randomized control trial (RCT) to assess the efficacy of weighted blankets (WB), on anxiety for patients with severe anorexia nervosa (AN) and avoidant restrictive food intake disorder (ARFID) in an inpatient medical setting. We hypothesize that using weighted blankets will reduce anxiety in these patient populations.

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

Anorexia nervosa (AN) has one of the highest mortality rates of any psychiatric disorder with anxiety being a common comorbidity. The standard of care for inpatient medical stabilization for patients diagnosed with AN is a multidisciplinary approach with emphasis on nutrition, psychotherapy, and medical management of complaints. Weighted blankets, an example of deep pressure stimulation, have been shown to reduce anxiety. However, not much is known about the effect of weighted blankets in the eating disorder population. Therefore, this randomized control trial (RCT) protocol outlines a study design for assessing the effect of weighted blankets on patients with AN.

A two-arm RCT design will be implemented for this study. A convenience sample of 24 patients will be enrolled with 12 patients in the control and intervention groups based on inclusion criteria. The control group will receive Denver Health's standard of care for patients admitted to its well-known medical stabilization unit for patients with extreme form of eating disorders, while the intervention group will receive both the standard of care and a weighted blanket. A mixed-design ANOVA will be performed to explore differences in the Beck's Anxiety Inventory and Subjective Units of Distress Scale between the intervention and control groups.

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

24

Phase

  • Not Applicable

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
    • Colorado
      • Denver, Colorado, United States, 80204
        • Denver Health and Hospital Authority

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 89 years (Adult, Older Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Genders Eligible for Study

All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Clinically diagnosed with AN-R, AN-BP, or ARFID upon admission (per Diagnostic and Statistical Manual-V criteria)
  • Moderate/Major Anxiety per initial evaluation score using BAI
  • OT assessment

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Pregnant or nursing mothers

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: Supportive Care
  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
  • Masking: None (Open Label)

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
No Intervention: Control group
The control group, or usual care group, will receive occupational therapy standard of care. Occupational therapy standard of care provide training, education, and therapeutic activities including relaxation strategies. These coping mechanisms are aimed at reducing the impact of anxiety on a patient's performance and participation in necessary and meaningful activities of daily living, refeeding and medical stabilization. Specifically, these interventions will include diaphragmatic and yogic breathing exercises, mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) education and exercises, therapeutic restorative yoga activities, occupational therapy group participation, aromatherapy, identifying and promoting engagement in meaningful leisure activities, client-centered sensory diets to provide patients with consistent preferred sensory experiences, and individualized checklists and schedules to grade the self-initiation of effective coping strategies.
Experimental: Weighted blanket group
In the weighted blanket intervention group, patients will receive usual occupational therapy care in addition to a weighted blanket. The patient will be given an appropriately weighted blanket, within 1 lb +/- of 10% of body weight as measured on day of admission. Further, the occupational therapy will provide education to the patient on the use of the weighted blanket. Patients will be free to use the weighted blanket at their discretion, however, during meals, over the shoulders or head, and during ambulation, weighted blanket use will not be permitted.
Other: Weighted blanket
Patients that were randomly assigned to the intervention group received a weighted blanket to use at their will to reduce anxiety

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Anxiety reduction
Time Frame: BAI measured during OT evaluation and through study completion, an average of 1 year
Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI)
BAI measured during OT evaluation and through study completion, an average of 1 year
Anxiety reduction
Time Frame: SUDS are measured during OT evaluation and through study completion, an average of 3 weeks
Subjective Units of Distress Scale (SUDS)
SUDS are measured during OT evaluation and through study completion, an average of 3 weeks

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Times weighted blankets are used
Time Frame: Behaviors will be documented every 2 hours over the course of treatment, through study completion, an average of 3 weeks
Ratio of times weighted blankets were used vs when not in use
Behaviors will be documented every 2 hours over the course of treatment, through study completion, an average of 3 weeks

Collaborators and Investigators

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

Sponsor

Denver Health and Hospital Authority

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Rachel Ohene, MOT, Denver Health Hospital and Authority

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 (Actual)

November 16, 2018

Primary Completion (Actual)

March 19, 2019

Study Completion (Actual)

November 30, 2019

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

December 3, 2019

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

December 5, 2019

First Posted (Actual)

December 10, 2019

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

December 10, 2019

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

December 5, 2019

Last Verified

December 1, 2019

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • 18-0596

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

No

IPD Plan Description

If we decide to share the data, we would ask researchers to reach out to the PI

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

No

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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