The Effectiveness of an Online Self-Delivered Death Anxiety Intervention

Peking University

Status: Invitation-only

Conditions: Death Anxiety

Treatments: Behavioral: Waiting-List (WL) condition; Behavioral: Online self-delivered death anxiety intervention

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT06801132

Facing death anxiety pilot

Details and patient eligibility

About

The goal of this clinical trial is to examine the effectiveness of the online self-delivered death anxiety intervention developed by our team in the general population with a randomized controlled trial. The study will recruit 50 participants, with 25 randomized to the death anxiety intervention group and 25 randomized to the control group (waiting list). The online intervention on death anxiety consists of 4 phases that take about 2 hours in total. The primary outcome DAS (Death Anxiety Scale) and DABBS (Death Anxiety Beliefs and Behaviors Scale) will be administered on baseline, post-treatment, 1-month follow-up, and 3-month follow-up assessments.

Enrollment: 50 estimated patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18 to 65 years old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• 18-65 years of age
• Normal literacy skills and ability to use a smartphone proficiently
• Higher death anxiety that is above the cutoff of our measurement
• Voluntarily participate in this intervention and be able to provide informed consent.

Exclusion criteria

• Severe depressive state or risk of suicidal self-injury, i.e., the total score of Patient Health Questionnaire 9-item ≥19 or the score of 9th item ≥2
• Diagnosed within 6 months with schizophrenia, depression, bipolar disorder, and other psychiatric disorders
• Have received any intervention for death anxiety or CBT intervention on any topic within the past 6 months.

Trial design

Primary purpose: Treatment

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: Single Blind

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50 participants in 2 patient groups

Death anxiety

Experimental group

Treatment:

Behavioral: Online self-delivered death anxiety intervention

Waiting-List (WL) condition

Other group

Description:

Participants assigned to WL will be asked not to use our death anxiety intervention or seek additional help related to death anxiety during the 1-week intervention period. After the one-month follow-up of the experimental group, the WL group will receive the same intervention for death anxiety. WL participants will also be given contact information to use in case of increasing distress.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Waiting-List (WL) condition