iExposure Intervention for Social Anxiety
Purpose
Social anxiety (SA) is a highly prevalent mental health concern, thought to disproportionately affect youth with recent international estimates of more than 30% of individuals reporting clinically elevated symptoms. Despite the prevalence of SA, as few as one in five individuals receive care, due to limited access to evidence-based treatments. Additionally there has been a notable increase in social anxiety since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. This proposal will use iExposure to develop a personalized mechanism-focused approach to optimizing treatment response for individuals with social anxiety by testing standard iExposure against two augmentations that incorporate distinct attention mechanisms (attention guidance and attention control).
Condition
- Social Anxiety
Eligibility
- Eligible Ages
- Over 18 Years
- Eligible Genders
- All
- Accepts Healthy Volunteers
- No
Inclusion Criteria
- Age 18 or older - Fluent in English - Leibowitz Social Anxiety Scale > 47 and endorses both social anxiety items on the Web Screening Questionnaire for Common Mental Disorders
Exclusion Criteria
- Currently receiving CBT for Social Anxiety Disorder - Significant visual impairment precluding engagement in the simulated teleconferencing interactions - Unstable dose of psychotropic medications within 6 weeks prior to baseline assessment - Current alcohol or substance use disorder - Current or past bipolar disorder or psychosis
Study Design
- Phase
- N/A
- Study Type
- Interventional
- Allocation
- Randomized
- Intervention Model
- Parallel Assignment
- Primary Purpose
- Treatment
- Masking
- None (Open Label)
Arm Groups
Arm | Description | Assigned Intervention |
---|---|---|
Active Comparator Standard iExposure |
iExposure. Participants will complete four intervention sessions within two weeks. The intervention will use an entirely self-guided protocol delivered via Qualtrics and Gorilla Experiment Builder: 1. During the first session, participants will receive a brief standardized psychoeducation module, presented via a 15-minute video recording. This video will explain the intervention, its rationale, and the procedure. 2. Participants will then complete 10 simulated teleconferencing interaction trials with different topics, each lasting a maximum of two minutes. During each call participants will be prompted by one of the audience members to respond to a question (described in further detail in the Materials section, below). 3. Participants will complete the Subjective Units of Distress Scale before and after each speech trial. 4. Sessions 2-4 involve the same protocol and the four intervention sessions are completed within two weeks. |
|
Experimental iExposure + Attention Guidance Augmentation |
Attention Guidance Augmentation. The attention guidance condition consists of two unique components in addition to the standard iExposure intervention: (1) the intervention rationale will include information about the importance of visually attending to the faces of the audience; (2) participants will be given a target audience member to focus their gaze on during each impromptu response. They will be told that they should look at and focus on the target audience member for the whole response. In each progressive session the number of trials where the participant is directed to focus on an uninterested audience member will increase. |
|
Experimental iExposure + Attention Control Augmentation |
The attention control condition consists of two unique components in addition to the standard iExposure intervention (1) the intervention rationale will include information about the importance of developing attention control; (2) participants will be given a central region of the screen (non-audience member) to focus on. They will be told that they should look at and focus on the central region for the whole response. |
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Recruiting Locations
More Details
- Status
- Recruiting
- Sponsor
- Palo Alto University