None listed
Conditions
Brief summary
This project is part of a research program examining the efficacy of Internet based education and treatment programs for people with social phobia and other commmon mental disorders. This project compares the effectiveness of different types of reminders and support at encouraging people with social phobia to complete the 6 lessons in the Program. We expect that people who receive telephone reminders (in addition to weekly emails and fortnightly smss) will complete a similar number of lessons and report similar benefit from the program as participants who do not receive the weekly phone call (but who do receive the email and sms reminders and receive access to the online forum moderated by a clinical psychologist).
Interventions
Participants will be randomly assigned to one of two groups: 1) Internet based education for social phobia with automatic email, short messaging service (sms) reminders, and weekly telephone reminders from an administrative assistant, or; 2) Internet based education for social phobia with automatic email and sms reminders, and online discussion forum support from a clinical psychologist. All participants will meet Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders 4th Edition (DSM-IV) criter
Participants will be randomly assigned to one of two groups: 1) Internet based education for social phobia with automatic email, short messaging service (sms) reminders, and weekly telephone reminders from an administrative assistant, or; 2) Internet based education for social phobia with automatic email and sms reminders, and online discussion forum support from a clinical psychologist. All participants will meet Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders 4th Edition (DSM-IV) criteria for social phobia. All participants will complete 6 lessons of Internet based education about management of symptoms of social phobia. One lesson will be completed every 7 to 10 days. Each lesson will take about 15 minutes to complete. Participants will also have access to summaries of each lesson, and will read anonymous stories about other people with social phobia, taking a further 20 minutes per summary. Participants in Group 1 will receive weekly emails and telephone calls and fortnightly sms reminder messages to continue with the program. Participants in group 2 will receive weekly emails and fortnightly sms reminder messages as well access to a clinician-moderated online forum discussing content of the program. The duration of each phone call is expected to be 2 minutes. The duration of the program is 8 weeks, but participants will be contacted 3 months post program and asked to complete follow-up questionnaires. Study questionnaires will be administered at application, pre-education, post-education, and at 3-months post-education. These will take about 20 minutes to complete. The educational materials are based on the Shyness Program, which applies cognitive behavioural techniques.
Sponsors
School of Psychiatry, University of New South Wales at St Vincent's Hospital
Study design
Allocation
Randomised controlled trial
Intervention model
Parallel
Primary purpose
Educational / counselling / training
Masking
Blinded (masking used)
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
All
Age
18 Years to No maximum
Healthy volunteers
No
Inclusion criteria
Meet DSM-IV criteria for social phobia - Internet access + printer access. - Australian citizen- Males and females.
Exclusion criteria
Current substance abuse/dependence- Psychotic disorder- Current or planned psychological treatment during study duration- Change in medications during last 1 month or intended change during study duration.
Outcome results
None listed