Social Support and Reduced Fear Acquisition

Can Social Support Figures Enhance Fear Extinction in Patients With Social Anxiety?

University of California, Los Angeles researchers will recruit healthy participants and anxious participants (those diagnosed with social anxiety disorder) age 18-55 years old to participate in a study examining whether the ability of social support figure reminders to prevent the acquisition of fear in healthy participants extends to those with anxiety disorders.

After being recruited from the UCLA community (healthy participants, n = 50) or referred by treatment providers at the Anxiety and Depression Research Center at UCLA (anxious participants, n =50) and undergoing a telephone screening and in-person screening, 100 participants will be enrolled in the study. During the experiment, all participants will undergo the same procedures: undergoing fear acquisition procedures--the repeated pairing of a neutral image with a mild electric shock that ultimately leads to the association of threat of shock with the image--in the presence of an image of a social support figure (provided by participants) and an image of a smiling stranger.

Study Overview

• Status: Recruiting
• Conditions: Anxiety; Fear
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: Social support image

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Estimated): 100
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

• Study Contact: Name: Naomi Eisenberger, PhD
• Study Contact Backup: Name: Erica Hornstein, PhD; Phone Number: 9175664470; Email: ericahornstein@ucla.edu

Study Locations

• United States
  • California
    • Los Angeles, California, United States, 90095-1563
      • Recruiting
      • UCLA Department of Psychology

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 18 years to 55 years (Adult)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• healthy adults 18 and 35
• fluent in English
• no history of mental illness (healthy participants: including anxiety, depression, phobia, or any other mental health related disorder diagnosed by a mental health professional)
• diagnosis of social anxiety disorder (anxious participants: allowed co-morbid disorders include depression, other anxiety disorders, and PTSD)

Exclusion Criteria:

• pregnant or planning to become pregnant during the experiment period
• presence of chronic mental illness (healthy participants: as determined by the report of a past diagnosis of mental illness by a physician or psychologist and/or the prescription of medication related to mental health disorder; including anxiety, depression, phobia, or any other diagnosed psychological disorder)
• presence of non-allowed co-morbid disorders (anxious participants: including, bipolar disorder, psychosis, substance use disorder, neurological disorder, and/or obsessive-compulsive disorder)
• current and regular use of prescription medications related to mental health disorders

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Basic Science
• Allocation: N/A
• Interventional Model: Single Group Assignment
• Masking: None (Open Label)

Number of Arms

1

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm

Intervention / Treatment

Experimental: Social Support

Behavioral: Social support image; An image of a social support figure specific to each participant (provided by the participant) will be present while participants undergo a fear acquisition procedure. Specifically--the image will be presented alongside a neutral image that is either consistently paired with shock (CS+) or never paired with shock (CS-), so that assessment of whether there are differences in fear responding (evaluated via SCR) due the shock pairing can be assessed. This is a typical fear acquisition procedure, and a typical outcome would be for SCR to be higher for the CS+ compared to the CS- toward the end and following the procedure, indicating that the CS+ is now associated with the aversive shock and is bringing about a fear response (in this case indexed by increased sympathetic nervous system activity preparing the body to fight or flee).

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Fear response during acquisition indicated by elevated Galvanic Skin Response (GSR)	presence of fear response as indicated by significantly higher galvanic skin response (GSR: an index of peripheral stress responding) to a previously learned fearful image (CS+) compared to a baseline comparator (CS-: never learned to be fearful).	during acquisition procedure
Fear response post-acquisition indicated by elevated GSR	presence of fear response as indicated by significantly higher galvanic skin response (GSR: an index of peripheral stress responding) to a previously learned fearful image (CS+) compared to a baseline comparator (CS-: never learned to be fearful).	same session - directly post-acquisition (approximately 5 minutes post procedure)

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: University of California, Los Angeles
• Collaborators: National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): February 9, 2022
• Primary Completion (Estimated): December 1, 2024
• Study Completion (Estimated): December 1, 2024

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: September 10, 2020
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: September 21, 2020
• First Posted (Actual): September 25, 2020

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): September 22, 2023
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: September 20, 2023
• Last Verified: September 1, 2023

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: social support; fear acquisition
• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Mental Disorders; Anxiety Disorders
• Other Study ID Numbers: SSA

Drug and device information, study documents

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