Anxiety Sensitivity Treatment for Heroin Users

Novel Intervention for Drug Use and HIV Risk Among Anxiety Sensitive Heroin Users

Status

Completed

Phases

Study type

Interventional

Source

ClinicalTrials.gov

Registry ID

NCT01196312

Acronym

ASTH-HR

Enrollment

Registered

2010-09-08

Start date

2009-10-31

Completion date

2011-09-30

Last updated

2023-05-30

For informational purposes only — not medical advice. Sourced from public registries and may not reflect the latest updates. Terms

Conditions

Anxiety

Keywords

anxiety sensitivity, heroin

Brief summary

Anxiety Sensitivity Treatment for Heroin Users is a development project targeting mild and above levels of anxiety sensitivity that will involve the testing of a specialized protocol for improving treatment retention and outcomes for heroin dependent individuals in a residential substance use treatment. ASTH-HR will integrate established treatment modules such as Healthy Relationships, along with interoceptive exposure, affect management, and psycho-education exercises developed for anxiety prevention and treatment programs with standard substance use treatment.

Interventions

BEHAVIORALAnxiety sensitivity therapy

ASTH consists of 6 sessions of individual treatment, each lasting approximately 75 minutes over 3 weeks. In general, each session consists of the following components1) psychoeducation regarding the anxiety response, with a focus on increasing awareness of the ways in which the patient interprets or evaluates that response 2) assistance in developing healthy emotion regulation strategies that can be used to increase acceptance and tolerance of the anxiety response (including associated catastrophic thoughts), as well as understanding the consequences associated with avoidance or control of anxiety 3) a minimum of 3 interoceptive exercises tailored to activate feared anxiety-related sensations and 4) daily homework assignments (i.e., daily anxiety monitoring and interoceptive exercises).

Study design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Intervention model

PARALLEL

Primary purpose

TREATMENT

Masking

NONE

Eligibility

Sex/Gender

ALL

Age

18 Years to 65 Years

Healthy volunteers

Inclusion criteria

* exhibit a score of 21 on a self-report measure of anxiety sensitivity * be in 28 days of residential substance use treatment. * meet criteria for current opioid dependence as determined by SCID interview administered at intake.

Exclusion criteria

* evidence of limited mental competency * the inability to give informed, voluntary, written consent to participate * current psychosis * current bipolar disorder.

Design outcomes

Primary

Measure	Time frame
Anxiety Sensitivity Index-3	24 weeks

Secondary

Measure	Time frame
Timeline Follow Back 90 days	24 weeks

Countries

United States

Outcome results

None listed

Source: ClinicalTrials.gov · Data processed: Feb 4, 2026