Overcoming Treatment Barriers (OBSTACLE-S)

Philipps University Marburg

Status: Completed

Conditions: Health Care Seeking Behavior; Health Care Utilization

Treatments: Other: Writing Task; Other: Video of a patients testimonial

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT06022432

2022-76k

Details and patient eligibility

About

This study aims to assess whether negative or rather the lack of positive treatment expectations could be positively influenced by online short interventions and increase intention so seek treatment and actual help-seeking behavior when compared to a no-treatment control group. Further, the study investigators like to explore if specifically focusing on intensifying positive treatment expectations vs. a reduction of expectations about negative treatment effects will influence the pattern of results differently.

Full description

The investigators expect that participants receiving an intervention e.g., amplifying positive (performance) expectancies vs. reducing negative (performance) expectancies of psychotherapeutic treatment, will show an increase in intentions to seek treatment and are more likely to report actual treatment-seeking behavior after the intervention when compared with participants who will describe their treatment expectations via a writing task.

Further, the investigators want to explore if the expectancy-modulating interventions will differently affect the intention to seek treatment within socially anxious individuals.

If participants agree, the investigators plan to assess changes in expectations, attitudes as well as actual treatment seeking behavior at a Follow-Up assessment one week later (data from Follow-Up will be analyzed exploratively and is not part of the main hypotheses).

Enrollment: 171 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18 to 75 years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• at least 18 years old
• fluent in German (C Level)
• access to a computer device with internet access

Exclusion criteria

• non correctable hearing or visual impairment
• current in psychotherapeutic treatment or on a waiting list
• no neurological impairment or psychotic disorders

Trial design

Primary purpose: Treatment

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: Single Blind

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171 participants in 3 patient groups

Reducing Negative Expectations

Experimental group

Description:

This group will watch a video of a patient-therapist interaction. The testimonial of the patient is framed to reduce negative expectations about therapeutic treatment.

Treatment:

Other: Video of a patients testimonial

Maximizing Positive Expectations

Experimental group

Description:

This group will watch a video of a patient-therapist interaction. The testimonial of the patient is framed to maximize positive expectations about therapeutic treatment.

Treatment:

Other: Video of a patients testimonial

Control Group

Other group

Description:

This group will explicate their current treatment expectations in a writing task.

Treatment:

Other: Writing Task