Text Message Safety Behavior Fading for 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

NCT06168253

STUDY2247MOD4140

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: 201 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 for social anxiety

Trial design

Primary purpose: Treatment

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: Single Blind

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201 participants in 2 patient groups

Experimental: Safety Behavior Fading

Experimental group

Description:

This treatment lasts a total of 28 days. Participants will be asked to identify common safety behaviors related to social anxiety. For the next 14 days, participants will receive instructions to fade out these behaviors. After 14 days, participants will be asked to re-select their target safety behaviors and continue to reduce them over the next two weeks.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Safety Behavior Fading for Social Anxiety

Unhealthy Behavior Fading

Active Comparator group

Description:

This treatment lasts a total of 28 days. Participants will be asked to identify common unhealthy behaviors related to social anxiety. For the next 14 days, participants will receive instructions to fade out these behaviors. After 14 days, participants will be asked to re-select their target unhealthy behaviors and continue to reduce them over the next two weeks.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Unhealthy Behavior Fading