Attention Bias Modification Treatment for Warzone-Related Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)

Attention Bias Modification Treatment for Warzone-Related PTSD: A Randomized Clinical Trial Magnetoencephalography Study

Status

Completed

Phases

Study type

Interventional

Source

ClinicalTrials.gov

Registry ID

NCT01564667

Enrollment

Registered

2012-03-28

Start date

2012-04-30

Completion date

2014-12-31

Last updated

2016-01-14

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

Conditions

Posttraumatic Stress Disorder

Keywords

PTSD, Posttraumatic Stress, Post Traumatic Stress, Attention Bias, Threat Bias, Combat, Warzone

Brief summary

Veterans with Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) will be randomly assigned to either Attention Bias Modification Treatment (ABMT) designed to reduce bias toward threat or a placebo control condition not designed to change attention patterns. Outcome measures will be PTSD, anxiety, depression, and alexithymia symptoms as measured by standard psychological interviews and questionnaires. Participants will also be invited to participate in physiological testing before and after receiving AMBT or placebo to serve as additional outcome measures and assess brain functioning, heart rate, and muscle tension. The investigators expect to see significant PTSD symptom reduction in the Attention Bias Modification Treatment (ABMT) group relative to the placebo control group in which no symptomatic relief is expected. At the end of the study, if ABMT is shown to be effective, we will offer active ABMT to those participants randomly assigned to the placebo arm if they would like to receive the treatment.

Interventions

BEHAVIORALAttention Bias Modification Training Protocol

Attention Bias Modification computerized training sessions administered 2 times per week for 4 weeks making a total of 8 training sessions.

Study design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Intervention model

PARALLEL

Primary purpose

TREATMENT

Masking

DOUBLE (Subject, Investigator)

Eligibility

Sex/Gender

ALL

Age

19 Years to 65 Years

Healthy volunteers

Yes

Inclusion criteria

* Veterans with Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) serving in United States Military after March 20, 2003.

Exclusion criteria

* Schizophrenia * Bipolar Disorder * Obsessive Compulsive Disorder * Head Injury with Loss of Consciousness for more than 30 minutes * Active Alcohol/Substance Dependence in past 6 months

Design outcomes

Primary

Measure	Time frame	Description
Will Posttraumatic Stress Disorder and Symptom decrease with intervention	8 weeks	Using Clinician-Administered PTSD Scale (CAPS): The clinician-Administered PTSD Scale (CAPS) is a 30-item structured interview that corresponds to the DSM-IV criteria for PTSD (Blake, Weathers, Nagy, Kaloupek, Charney, & Keane, 1995) to assess symptoms of PTSD outcome.

Secondary

Measure	Time frame	Description
Other psychiatics symptoms (ie Depression, Anger, Anxiety)	8 weeks	To assess potential decrease in psychiatric symptoms associated with PTSD, by comparing pre intervention and post intervention scores on psychological measures of deprssion, anger and anxiety.

Countries

United States

Outcome results

None listed

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