The Role of Expectations in the Development of Intrusive Memories

Philipps University

Status: Completed

Conditions: Posttraumatic Stress Disorder

Treatments: Behavioral: Negative Expectation Manipulation; Behavioral: Positive Expectation Manipulation

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT03950869

2019-07

Details and patient eligibility

About

In the experimental study, the well-established trauma film paradigm will be used to investigate the impact of expectations on the development of intrusive memories as a hallmark symptom of PTSD.

Full description

The study aims to examine the influence of different expectations on the development of intrusive memories by using a well-established experimental paradigm - the trauma film paradigm. In healthy volunteers, intrusion-like symptoms are to be induced with an analogue stressor, i.e., aversive film clip footage (trauma film). After viewing this so-called trauma film, the expectations of intrusions during the following week are manipulated by assigning participants randomly to three different groups. In the first group, negative expectations are induced (experimental group 1), the second group is exposed to positive expectations (experimental group 2) and a third group does not face any kind of manipulation of their expectations (control group). Participants are asked to report occurring intrusions in a diary during the following week and are invited to a subsequent cued laboratory inquiry at follow-up.

Enrollment: 90 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18 to 65 years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• healthy volunteers
• fluent in German language

Exclusion criteria

• history of traumatic experiences (LEC-5)
• presence of a mental disorder (SCID-I according to DSM-IV)
• cut-off in depression screening (PHQ-9)
• current suicidal thoughts/behavior or non-suicidal self-injury behavior (C-SSRS)
• medical history of heart disease or epilepsy
• history of fainting
• work experience in the medical field (e.g., nurses, paramedics, etc.)
• visual impairment
• students of psychology and medicine

Trial design

Primary purpose: Basic Science

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: Triple Blind

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90 participants in 3 patient groups

Negative Expectations

Experimental group

Description:

Expectations on the severity and frequency of intrusions are increased while expectations on the controllability of intrusions are decreased.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Negative Expectation Manipulation

Positive Expectations

Experimental group

Description:

Expectations on the severity and frequency of intrusions are decreased while expectations on the controllability of intrusions are increased.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Positive Expectation Manipulation

No Expectation Manipulation

No Intervention group

Description:

Expectations on the severity and frequency of intrusions and on the controllability are neither increased nor decreased.