Attention Control Treatment for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder ׂ(PTSD)

Tel Aviv University

Status: Completed

Conditions: PTSD

Treatments: Behavioral: Non-personalized Attention control training (ACT); Behavioral: Personalized Attention control training (ACT); Behavioral: Control training.

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT02945709

TAUPTSD

Details and patient eligibility

About

The purpose of this study is to explore the efficacy of Attention Control Training for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).

ACT was found to be effective in decreasing attention bias variability and PTSD symptoms in combat veterans (Badura-Brack, et al., 2015). It is now important to continue the examination of ACT's efficacy in additional populations of patients with PTSD. Such extension of treatment to other traumatic experiences raises the question of whether the threatening content of the training material could be personalized for each patient.

Full description

The aim of this study is to explore the efficacy of Attention Control Training for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).

ACT was found to be effective in decreasing attention bias variability and PTSD symptoms in combat veterans (Badura-Brack, et al., 2015). It is now important to continue the examination of ACT's efficacy in additional populations of patients with PTSD. Such extension of treatment to other traumatic experiences raises the question of whether the threatening content of the training material could be personalized for each patient.

For this purpose, we will recruit participants that are diagnosed with PTSD and will be randomly assigned to one of three conditions: personalized ACT, non-personalized ACT, or control training We expect that personalized ACT will produce greater reduction in PTSD symptoms relative to a non-personalized ACT, and that both these conditions will be more effective in symptoms reduction than a control condition not designed to affect attention or expose patients to threat stimuli. We also expect the ACT conditions to reduce attention bias variability relative to the control condition.

Enrollment: 60 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18 to 70 years old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

Meeting a current diagnosis of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) according to DSM-V (American Psychiatric Association, 2013);

Exclusion criteria

1. A diagnosis of psychotic or bipolar disorders.
2. A diagnosis of a neurological disorder (i.e., epilepsy, brain injury).
3. Suicidal ideation.
4. Drugs or alcohol abuse.
5. Non-fluent Hebrew.
6. A pharmacological treatment that is not stabilized in the past 3 months (a stable treatment will not be a reason for exclusion from the study).
7. Pregnancy. -

Trial design

Primary purpose: Treatment

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Factorial Assignment

Masking: Quadruple Blind

---

60 participants in 3 patient groups, including a placebo group

Personalized ACT

Experimental group

Description:

The personalized attention control training (ACT), comprised of six computerized sessions, in purpose of modulate biases in attention for personalized threat stimuli.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Personalized Attention control training (ACT)

Non personalized ACT

Active Comparator group

Description:

The Non-personalized attention control training (ACT), comprised of six sessions, in purpose of modulate biases in attention for non-personalized threat stimuli.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Non-personalized Attention control training (ACT)

Control training

Placebo Comparator group

Description:

Computerized control training, comprised of six sessions with a variation of the dot-probe task with neutral stimuli

Treatment:

Behavioral: Control training.