Treatment Seeking for Social Anxiety

Brief Online Interventions to Facilitate Treatment Seeking for Social Anxiety

This study developed and then compared via randomized trial two brief online interventions targeting increasing treatment-seeking behavior in social anxiety.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Social Anxiety
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: Psychoeducation; Behavioral: Motivation

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 919
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• United States
  • Colorado
    • Boulder, Colorado, United States, 80309
      • University of Colorado Boulder

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 18 years and older (Adult, Older Adult)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes
• Genders Eligible for Study: All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• High social anxiety (score >30 on Social Phobia Inventory (SPIN) Connor et al., 2000)
• Fluent in English
• Amazon Mechanical Turk HIT approval rate > 95%
• Amazon Mechanical Turk account listed as US resident

Exclusion Criteria:

• Already enrolled in target treatments (i.e. CBT for social anxiety, using social anxiety self-help book, or participating in online treatment for social anxiety)
• Indicating that they would "never consider" treatment for social anxiety

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Supportive Care
• Allocation: Randomized
• Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
• Masking: Triple

Number of Arms

2

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Active Comparator: Psychoeducation	Behavioral: Psychoeducation; Online psychoeducation about social anxiety, evidence-based treatments that target social anxiety, and treatment referral/resource information.
Experimental: Psychoeducation plus Motivation Enhancement	Behavioral: Psychoeducation; Online psychoeducation about social anxiety, evidence-based treatments that target social anxiety, and treatment referral/resource information.; Behavioral: Motivation; Online exercises/activities regarding social anxiety (and treatment thereof) based in principles from Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) and Motivational Interviewing (MI)/Motivational Enhancement Therapy (MET).

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Treatment seeking motivations: Attitudes toward seeking treatment for social anxiety.	Affective attitudes toward seeking treatment for social anxiety were assessed using a standard 7-item 1-7 semantic differential scale in which participants rated "seeking treatment for social anxiety in the next month would be" according to opposite adjective pairs (e.g., "Unhealthy"/"Healthy"). Possible scores range from 7-49, with higher scores indicating more favorable attitudes toward seeking treatment for social anxiety.	Change from baseline to one-month follow-up
Treatment seeking motivations: Intentions to seek treatment for social anxiety.	As the existing literature lacks a sufficient and specific scale for assessing intentions to seek treatment, we developed a scale based on the Theory of Planned Behavior (https://doi.org/10.1016/0749-5978(91)90020-T) as well as crucial steps toward seeking treatment identified previously (https://doi.org/10.1016/S0887-6185(02)00259-1). The resulting scale includes 13 total items assessing intentions to seek treatment for social anxiety in the following month. Items were rated using Likert scales from 1 ("strongly disagree"/"not very likely") to 7 ("strongly agree"/"very likely"), with higher scores indicating greater intention to seek treatment for social anxiety within the following month.	Change from baseline to one-month follow-up
Treatment seeking motivations: Perceived behavioral control/confidence regarding seeking treatment for social anxiety.	Paralleling the intentions scale above, the present study developed a measure of perceived behavioral control regarding seeking treatment for social anxiety, as the existing literature lacked a sufficient and specific measure. The resulting scale includes 14 total items assessment perceived ability to seek treatment for social anxiety in the following month. Items were rated using Likert scales from 1 ("strongly disagree") to 7 ("strongly agree"), with higher scores indicating greater perceived ability to seek treatment for social anxiety.	Change from baseline to one-month follow-up

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Treatment seeking behaviors	Checklist of behavioral steps toward seeking treatment within specific domains (i.e. in-person treatment, bibliotherapy, online-treatment, medication, and alternative treatments). Because the existing literature lacks a treatment-seeking behavior questionnaire, we developed a behavioral checklist adapted from Buckner and Schmidt (2009; doi: 10.1016/j.brat.2009.04.009). The measure included 19 total treatment-seeking behaviors across the above listed domains, and as such scores could range from 0 (no steps taken toward seeking treatment since intervention) to 19 (every listed step toward every type of treatment taken since the intervention). Higher scores are considered the better outcome in the present study.	One-month follow-up

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: University of Colorado, Boulder

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): March 28, 2016
• Primary Completion (Actual): July 6, 2016
• Study Completion (Actual): July 6, 2016

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: November 27, 2019
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: December 10, 2019
• First Posted (Actual): December 12, 2019

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): December 12, 2019
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: December 10, 2019
• Last Verified: December 1, 2019

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Mental Disorders; Anxiety Disorders
• Other Study ID Numbers: 15-0452

Drug and device information, study documents

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