Cognitive Bias Modification for Perfectionism and Intolerance to Uncertainty

Istanbul Sabahattin Zaim University

Status: Completed

Conditions: Perfectionism; Intolerance to Uncertainty

Treatments: Behavioral: Cognitive Bias Modification; Behavioral: Cognitive Bias Modification for Control Group

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT04843228

13630784

Details and patient eligibility

About

This study will examine the impact of cognitive bias modification (CBM) on perfectionism and intolerance to uncertainty. Undergraduate students will be recruited and randomly assigned to either experimental or placebo-control groups. Each group will attend four sessions of CBM over four weeks.

Full description

Background. Cognitive bias modification (CBM) is an intervention aiming to systematically change the biases in cognitive processing using experimental paradigms. CBM was found effective with a variety of disorders and transdiagnostic variables. Although there are few studies focusing on transdiagnostic variables like perfectionism and intolerance to uncertainty, further research needs to be done for the generalizability of these results. It was aimed in this study to test the effectiveness of CBM for perfectionism and intolerance to uncertainty with a sample of undergraduate students in Turkey.

Sample size was determined using G*power for a medium to large effect size based on previous studies and it was planned to include 28 undergraduate students who have a score of >70.5 in the Brief Symptom Measure in the study. Participants will get either 3-course credits or a 100 TL bookstore gift card for their full participation. After getting informed consent from participants, they will be randomized to either active or control condition. Participants will be blind to their intervention condition. Following randomization, baseline measurements will be collected. After the baseline measures were collected, links for interventions will be e-mailed to the participants according to their assigned group. Participants will get an email including the link for the study every week. Interpretation bias scores of participants for perfectionism and intolerance to uncertainty will be collected before the first intervention session and after the last intervention session. These sessions will last approximately 25 min. Participants will attend the session without an assessment in the second and third week and these sessions will last approximately 15 min. After four sessions, post-tests will be sent to the participants. Questionnaires will also be collected one month after the intervention was done.

Enrollment: 54 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18+ years old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Older than 18 years old
• Have a score of >70.5 in Brief Symptom Measure
• Being an undergraduate student
• Fluent in Turkish
• Access to the internet by computer

Exclusion criteria

• Having any psychiatric disorder
• Receiving a psychiatric/psychological treatment

Trial design

Primary purpose: Prevention

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: Double Blind

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54 participants in 2 patient groups, including a placebo group

Active Cognitive Bias Modification Group

Experimental group

Description:

This group of participants will receive 4 sessions of CBM targeting their interpretation biases for perfectionism and intolerance to uncertainty.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Cognitive Bias Modification

Placebo-Control Cognitive Bias Modification Group

Placebo Comparator group

Description:

This group of participants will receive 4 sessions of inactive CBM.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Cognitive Bias Modification for Control Group