Altered Neural Pain Empathic Reactivity in NSSI Adolescents

Abnormal Neural Pain Empathic Processing in Adolescents With Non-suicidal Self-Injury

Nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI) is defined as direct, deliberate bodily harm without suicidal intention. In recent years, growing evidence suggests that NSSI has become a worldwide public health issue. People with NSSI behaviors, especially adolescents, commonly exhibit emotion-related and interpersonal problems. Pain empathy represents an essential basal domain of socio-emotional processing and refers to the ability to empathize, connect and share with others' pain. However, altered empathic processing has not been systematically examined in adolescents with NSSI. To this end, the current functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study will recruit one group of NSSI adolescents (n=40) and one healthy control (HC) group (n=40), to compare their neural activity regarding pain empathy processing, which is measured by blood oxygenation level-dependent (BOLD) fMRI. The investigators included conditions of physical pain empathy (stimuli depicting noxious stimulation to the limbs) and affective pain empathy (stimuli depicting faces expressing pain) as well as corresponding control stimuli. The investigators hypothesize that compared to HC, NSSI adolescents show increased empathic reactivity to physical pain stimuli in salience and arousal related brain regions but decreased empathic reactivity to affective pain empathic stimuli.

Study Overview

• Status: Recruiting
• Conditions: Nonsuicidal Self Injury; Pain Empathy

• Study Type: Observational
• Enrollment (Estimated): 80

Contacts and Locations

• Study Contact: Name: Benjamin Becker; Phone Number: +86.028-61830867; Email: ben_becker@gmx.de

Study Locations

• China
  • Sichuan
    • Chengdu, Sichuan, China
      • Recruiting
      • Sichuan Provincial Center for Mental Health, Sichuan Provincial People's Hospital, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China
      • Contact: Lyuan Li; Email: lly_psychology@163.com

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: Child; Adult
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes

• Sampling Method: Non-Probability Sample

Study Population

Treatment-seeking NSSI individuals will be recruited from local hospitals and HC from the community

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• 15-18 years
• right-handed
• normal or corrected normal visual acuity
• meet the proposed DSM-5 frequency criteria (e.g., ≥5 days of NSSI behaviors in the past year)

Exclusion Criteria:

• diagnosis of borderline personality disorder, major depressive disorder, other
• psychiatric disorders, etc.
• high suicidal risk
• recent use of medications that can affect neural activity
• have received or are receiving Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) other treatment for emotional problems within the past 6 months
• have a contraindication to MRI scanning (e.g., metal implants, claustrophobia or other conditions that make them inappropriate for MRI scanning)

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Number of groups / cohorts

2

Cohorts and Interventions

Group / Cohort
NSSI
HC

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Neural activity as indexed by BOLD fMRI	Brain activity will be monitored by task-based fMRI. The paradigm will present affective and physical pain empathy pictures and matched control stimuli. Alterations in the patients will be determined by comparing neural activity to the experimental conditions between the experimental groups (NSSI vs. HC) using ANOVA models.	About 8 minutes

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: University of Electronic Science and Technology of China

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): December 6, 2023
• Primary Completion (Estimated): July 1, 2026
• Study Completion (Estimated): July 1, 2027

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: July 20, 2023
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: July 20, 2023
• First Posted (Actual): August 1, 2023

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): April 11, 2024
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: April 9, 2024
• Last Verified: April 1, 2024

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Behavioral Symptoms; Self-Injurious Behavior
• Other Study ID Numbers: BAM_lab_NSSI_02

Drug and device information, study documents

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