Healthy individuals with low levels of interoception awareness Other
Conditions
Interventions
We aim to recruit 120 people experiencing low interoception awareness, as measured by the Bodily Awareness Questionnaire (BAQ), who will be individually randomised to receive InMe intervention ("InMe
Sponsors
University College London
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
All
Inclusion criteria
Inclusion criteria: 1. Aged 18 to 30 years old 2. Low levels of interoception awareness with a score on the Bodily Awareness Questionnaire (BAQ) <25 percentile (Depending on recruitment rate we will need to consider less restrictive criterion of < 30/40 percentile)
Exclusion criteria
Exclusion criteria: 1. Existing substance dependency, moderate to severe cognitive impairment and severe mental health conditions (e.g., psychosis) 2. Existing severe neurological condition (e.g., epilepsy) 3. Existing diagnosis of heart-disease 4. Current use of neurological, cardiac (e.g., medications that influence blood pressure/cardiovascular functioning) or psychiatric medication (via self-report) 5. Body mass index (BMI) = 30, where BMI = kg/m2 6. Low vision/hearing that cannot be corrected 7. Unable to fluently understand English speakers 8. Pregnancy
Design outcomes
Primary
| Measure | Time frame |
|---|---|
| Adaptive interoception measured using the 25 items from the Multidimensional Assessment of Interoceptive Awareness (MAIA) questionnaire at baseline, up to 5 days before the first visit/intervention (T0), at the end of the day of the second visit/intervention, scheduled 5 to 9 days following the first visit (T1b) and at follow-up 7 to 9 weeks after T0 (T2) | — |
Secondary
| Measure | Time frame |
|---|---|
| 1. Measures of Interoception: 1.1. Interoceptive self-efficacy beliefs updating measured using computational methods (see https://osf.io/x4ysv) at baseline (T0) 1.2. Interoception accuracy measured by the Heart Rate Discrimination (HRD) task at T0, at the end of the day of the second visit/intervention, scheduled 5 to 9 days following the first visit (T1b) and at follow-up 7 to 9 weeks after T0 (T2) 1.3. Interoceptive global Metacognitive sensitivity measured by the HRD task at T0, T1b and T2 1.4 Interoception sensibility measured using the total score of “Multidimensional Assessment of Interoceptive Awareness” (MAIA) and its specific self-regulatory subscale at T0, T1b and T2 2. Measures of mental-health-related symptoms: 2.1. Disordered eating symptoms sum score measured using EDI-3 sub-scales (drive for thinness, bulimia and body dissatisfaction) at T0, T1b and T2 2.2. Self-reported psychological symptoms measured using the General Score Index of the BSI-53 and its specific sub-scales on somatisation symptoms, anxiety and depression at T0, T1b and T2 2.3. Affective and Interpersonal problems related to eating disorders measured using interoceptive deficits scale (EDI-3) at T0, T1b and T2 2.4. Emotional regulation measured using the Difficulties in emotion regulation scale (DERS) at T0, T1b and T2 3. Measures of Potential Moderators: 3.1. Core dimensions of obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) harm avoidance and incompleteness as measured by OC-CDQ scoring at T0 3.2. Difficulty dealing with uncertainty measured using Intolerance for Uncertainty (IUS) scoring at T0 3.3. Measures of cardiac physiology measured using heart rate variability HRV at T0, T1b and T2 | — |
Countries
England, United Kingdom
Outcome results
None listed