Evaluation of a Self-Monitoring Intervention to Reduce Safety Behavior in Social Anxiety

Florida State University

Status: Completed

Conditions: Social Anxiety

Treatments: Behavioral: Unhealthy Behavior Fading; Behavioral: Safety Behavior Fading for Social Anxiety

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT05168020

STUDY00002247

Details and patient eligibility

About

The current study aims to explore the efficacy of a text message based Safety Behavior Fading Intervention compared to an active control intervention.

Full description

Safety behavior fading may be a viable standalone intervention for social anxiety. In the present trial, participants high in social anxiety will be randomized to either receive a daily checklist exercise aimed at eliminating (1) safety behaviors or (2) unhealthy behaviors. Individuals randomly assigned to the safety behavior fading condition will receive instructions to decrease or eliminate their four most habitual social anxiety safety behaviors. In addition, they will receive daily reminders via text message to decrease these behaviors, along with a safety behavior monitoring checklist in which the participant indicates the extent to which they decreased and/or eliminated each safety behavior over the previous day. Individuals randomly assigned to the control condition will receive similar text messages and a daily checklist to encourage fading of unhealthy behaviors. Participants in both conditions will complete checklists for 28 days. After day 14 of treatment, participants will re-select their target safety behaviors or unhealthy behaviors, and will then be prompted to reduce these new behaviors for another 14 days.

Enrollment: 154 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18 to 65 years old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Social Phobia Inventory Score >29
• Stable Psychotropic Medications for 4 weeks prior to participation

Exclusion criteria

• Currently participating in psychotherapy

Trial design

Primary purpose: Treatment

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: Single Blind

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154 participants in 2 patient groups

Safety Behavior Fading

Experimental group

Description:

Participants will be asked to identify their five most common SBs from the SAFE. Participants will then be shown a sample checklist with instructions to fill it out. For the next 14 days, participants will receive the following text message "Please remember to avoid using SBs you selected. As you drop them, you'll be able to go into social situations with greater confidence!" with a link for their daily checklist to complete. Participants will be asked to rate how often they engaged in each SB over the past 24 hours

Treatment:

Behavioral: Safety Behavior Fading for Social Anxiety

Unhealthy Behavior Fading

Active Comparator group

Description:

Participants will be asked to pick five unhealthy behaviors they engage in most often to decrease. Participants will then be shown the same sample checklist as the Safety Behavior Fading Group. For the next 14 days participants will receive the following text message "Please try to remember to decrease your unhealthy behaviors. As you decrease them you will feel better, and you'll be able to go into social situations with greater confidence!" with a link for their daily checklist to complete. Participants will be asked to rate how often they engaged in each Unhealthy Behavior over the past 24 hours.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Unhealthy Behavior Fading