The Role of Treatment Expectation in Exposure Training With Spider Fearful Participants

University Hospital Basel

Status: Completed

Conditions: Phobic Disorders

Treatments: Other: positive treatment expectations; Other: neutral treatment expectations

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT03012035

SPFE 2017

Details and patient eligibility

About

This study evaluates the role of treatment success expectation in spider fearful individuals on the actual treatment success. Half of participants will have positive treatment success expectations, while the other half will have neutral treatment outcome expectations.

Full description

The investigator plan to conduct a randomized, single blind study with two parallel groups. Both groups undergo the same standardized psychotherapeutic intervention, i.e. exposure training. All participants will receive the same exposure training in groups of maximum three participants of the same study group. The two study groups only differ regarding the induced treatment expectations towards the effects of the exposure training. While the experimental group will get an open administration of treatment and be informed in order to have a positive treatment expectation, the comparator group will receive a hidden administration of treatment and get neutral information, thus treatment expectations will be neutral. Study members conducting the exposure training with the participants will not be aware of the allocation of the study participants. Study participants will be informed about the aim of the allocated condition, but they will be blind to the aim of the study in order to induce the specific expectation. Differences in treatment outcomes are compared between both groups to investigate the association with treatment expectation.

Enrollment: 70 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18+ years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• good knowledge of German language

• fulfilling criteria A-E and G for specific phobia according to Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM)-V (fulfilling criteria F is not an inclusion criteria)

  • marked fear or anxiety about spiders
  • spiders almost always provoke immediate fear or anxiety
  • spiders are actively avoided or endured with intense fear or anxiety
  • the fear or anxiety is out of proportion to the actual danger posed by spiders
  • the fear, anxiety, or avoidance is persistent, typically lasting for 6 months or more
  • the disturbance is not better explained by the symptoms of mental disorders as agoraphobia, obsessive-compulsive disorder, posttraumatic stress disorder, separation anxiety or social anxiety disorder

Exclusion criteria

• acute or chronic psychiatric disorder
• currently in psychological or psychiatric treatment
• knowledge of exposure training

Trial design

Primary purpose: Other

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: Single Blind

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70 participants in 2 patient groups

experimental group

Experimental group

Description:

Before participants undergo the exposure training their expectation of treatment efficacy is manipulated with different information regarding the following treatment. The experimental group will get positive treatment expectations induced with the accurate information, that exposure training refers to the gold standard in psychotherapy to reduce spider fear (= open administration of treatment).

Treatment:

Other: positive treatment expectations

comparator group

Other group

Description:

The comparator group will get neutral expectations regarding treatment outcome. To induce neutral treatment expectations about the following exposure training, it is necessary to tell them they are in the comparator group and that they will receive a comparator condition exposure training for diagnostic purposes only (= hidden administration of treatment).

Treatment:

Other: neutral treatment expectations