Death Anxiety, Depression and Anxiety: An Experimental Study

Babes-Bolyai University

Status: Enrolling

Conditions: Death Anxiety; Depression; Anxiety

Treatments: Behavioral: Dental Pain Prompts; Behavioral: Mortality Salience Prompts

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT07201480

430/ 30.04.2024

Details and patient eligibility

About

The goal of this experimental study is to investigate the transdiagnostic role of death anxiety in depression and anxiety symptoms in participants from the general population.

The main questions it aims to answer are:

1. Does the mortality salience task induce death anxiety?
2. Does the experimental group present an increase in depression and anxiety symptoms following the mortality salience task?

The investigators will compare the experimental condition to a control condition to see if the death anxiety induction is responsible for the expected increase in depression and anxiety symptoms.

The mortality salience prompt will be asking participants to elaborate on their thoughts and feelings surrounding death and dying, including what they think happens during death. The dental pain prompt will ask participants to do the same, only in regards to the thought of having dental pain.

Experimental group: participants will undergo a pen-and-paper writing task where they will be asked to answer two questions:

1. "Please briefly describe the emotions that the thought of your own death arouses in you."
2. "Jot down, as specifically as you can, what you think will happen to you physically as you die and once you are physically dead."

Control group:

1. "Please briefly describe the emotions that the thought of dental pain arouses in you."
2. "Jot down, as specifically as you can, what you think happens to you physically as you experience dental pain and once you have physically experienced dental pain."

Full description

The purpose of this study is to investigate the role of death anxiety as a transdiagnostic factor in psychopathology. In this particular study, the investigators will examine whether increases in death anxiety - brought about by increasing the salience of death by use of a mortality salience prime lead to increases in levels of depression and anxiety.

Participants will provide their informed consent and will proceed to complete the measures of the study (pretest). Eligible participants will be randomly allocated to either the mortality salience group (experimental group), or the dental pain group (the control group). Participants will be blind to group allocation.

Two weeks after completing the pretest measures, the participants will come to the lab and undergo the experimental tasks, depending on the condition that they have been allocated to.

Experimental group: participants will undergo a pen-and-paper writing task where they will be asked to answer two questions

1. Please briefly describe the emotions that the thought of your own death arouses in you.
2. Jot down, as specifically as you can, what you think will happen to you physically as you die and once you are physically dead.

Control group: participants will undergo a pen-and-paper writing task where they will be asked to answer two questions

1. Please briefly describe the emotions that the thought of dental pain arouses in you.
2. Jot down, as specifically as you can, what you think happens to you physically as you experience dental pain and once you have physically experienced dental pain.

After the prime, participants will complete a distractor task, during which they will be asked to read a short, emotionally neutral text - a bogus scientific article, estimated to be a 5 minute read - and answer questions based on this text. Participants will be told that this task is done in order to assess text comprehension abilities. After completing the distractor task, participants will complete the study measures the second time (posttest).

Upon study completion, all participants will be debriefed in the lab, and the real purpose of the study will be explained to them.

Enrollment: 128 estimated patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18 to 65 years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Age over 18 years.
• Living in Cluj-Napoca (or otherwise willing and able to participate in the lab task)

Exclusion criteria

• Personality disorder diagnosis
• Psychotic disorder diagnosis
• Suicidal ideation

Trial design

Primary purpose: Basic Science

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: Single Blind

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128 participants in 2 patient groups, including a placebo group

Mortality Primed

Experimental group

Description:

Participants in this arm will be instructed to answer two questions that are meant to bring to awareness thoughts about their mortality: "Please briefly describe the emotions that the thought of your death arouses in you." and "Jot down, as specifically as you can, what you think will happen to you physically as you die and once you are physically dead."

Treatment:

Behavioral: Mortality Salience Prompts

Dental Pain Primed

Placebo Comparator group

Description:

Participants in this arm will be instructed to answer two questions that may bring to mind thoughts and memories of dental pain: "Please briefly describe the emotions that the thought of dental pain arouses in you." and "Jot down, as specifically as you can, what you think happens to you physically as you experience dental pain and once you have physically experienced dental pain."

Treatment:

Behavioral: Dental Pain Prompts