Home-Delivered Attention Control Treatment for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)

Tel Aviv University

Status: Completed

Conditions: PTSD

Treatments: Behavioral: Attention Control Training (ACT); Behavioral: Attention Bias Modification (ABM)

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT04228133

TAU-ACT

Details and patient eligibility

About

The aim of the study is to explore the efficacy of home-delivered Attention Control Training (ACT) for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).

Three randomized controlled trials have shown that attention bias modification protocols applying attention control training (ACT) aimed to balance attention between threat-related and neutral stimuli are efficient in reducing PTSD symptoms. However, contrary to in-clinic administration, such as applied in the above mentioned studies, home-delivered attention bias modification was not effective in reducing symptoms among treatment-seeking patients.

It is crucial to continue examining the efficacy of home-delivered ACT as PTSD entails functional impairments that might impede treatment-seeking patients from reaching to clinics to receive treatment. This could also inform other ABM protocols designated to treat other disorders.

Full description

The aim of the study is to explore the efficacy of home-delivered Attention Control Training (ACT) for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).

Three randomized controlled trials have shown that attention bias modification (ABM) protocols applying attention control training (ACT) aimed to balance attention between threat-related and neutral stimuli are efficient in reducing PTSD symptoms. However, contrary to in-clinic administration, such as applied in the above mentioned studies, home-delivered ABM was not effective in reducing symptoms among treatment-seeking patients.

It is crucial to continue examining the efficacy of home-delivered ACT as PTSD entails functional impairments that might impede treatment-seeking patients from reaching to clinics to receive treatment. This could also inform other ABM protocols designated to treat other disorders.

To overcome some critical differences between home and lab environments, the investigators developed a home-delivered ACT protocol that resembles as much as possible the typical-in-lab protocol. Specifically, participants will be accompanied during their training sessions using internet-based video conference, permitting a better control for the physical environment before and during the session and a direct interaction with the experimenters.

To test its efficacy, the investigators will recruit participants that are diagnosed with PTSD and will be randomly assigned to one of two home-delivered conditions: ACT and a control ABM condition. It is hypothesized that home-delivered ACT will produce greater reduction in PTSD symptoms relative to a control ABM protocol. It is also expected that ACT will reduce attention bias variability to a greater extent compared to the control condition.

Enrollment: 60 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18 to 65 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);
• Having a home PC with internet access, web cam, microphone and speakers. Operation system must be windows 7 or a newer version.

Exclusion criteria

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

Trial design

Primary purpose: Treatment

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: Quadruple Blind

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60 participants in 2 patient groups, including a placebo group

Home-delivered attention control training (ACT)

Experimental group

Description:

A home-delivered ACT comprised of 8 sessions with a variation of the dot-probe task in which the target probe replaces the neutral and threat stimuli with an equal probability to reduce attention bias variability (ABV).

Treatment:

Behavioral: Attention Control Training (ACT)

Home-delivered attention bias modification (ABM)

Placebo Comparator group

Description:

A home-delivered ABM comprised of 8 sessions with a variation of the dot-probe task in which the target probe always replaces the threat stimuli to induce diversion of attention away from threat.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Attention Bias Modification (ABM)