Effects of Micro-Interventions on Stress Reactivity

The Effects of Brief, Psychological Interventions (Micro-Interventions) on the Individual Stress Reactivity

Status

Completed

Phases

Study type

Interventional

Source

ClinicalTrials.gov

Registry ID

NCT04171154

Enrollment

Registered

2019-11-20

Start date

2019-08-15

Completion date

2020-10-19

Last updated

2021-07-02

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

Conditions

Psychological Stress, Physiological Stress

Brief summary

This study aims to investigate the effects of short, psychological interventions on bio-psychological stress responses after an acute stressor. The efficacy of two different approaches (expectation-bases vs. acceptance-based) will be compared to a control-group.

Interventions

BEHAVIORALExpectation

writing task

BEHAVIORALAcceptance

listening

Study design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Intervention model

PARALLEL

Primary purpose

BASIC_SCIENCE

Masking

SINGLE (Subject)

Eligibility

Sex/Gender

ALL

Age

18 Years to 50 Years

Healthy volunteers

Yes

Inclusion criteria

* fluent in German language

Exclusion criteria

* chronic disease * mental disease * the evening before the day of the experiment until end of the experiment (the next day): * caffeine, alcohol, intensive physical exercise, chewing gum * acute hay fever * current intake of psychotropic medication * current intake of orale contraceptives * visual impairments * heart conditions (self and close relatives)

Design outcomes

Primary

Measure	Time frame	Description
Change in Subjective Stress Ratings	at baseline, before the intervention, after the intervention; during the stressor, after the stressor; in total 45 minutes	VAS (visual analogue scale)
Change in Cortisol Levels	at baseline (min. -37), after the intervention (min. -19), after the stressor (min. 0), recovery 1 (min. +15), recovery 2 (min. +30); in total 67 minutes	saliva sample
Changes in Heart-Rate-Variability (HRV)	during baseline (duration 10 minutes), during the stressor (duration 20 minutes), during recovery (duration 10 minutes); in total 40 minutes	electrocardiogram
Changes in Affect	at baseline, after the stressor; in total 45 minutes	VAS (visual analogue scale)

Secondary

Measure	Time frame	Description
Self-Efficacy	at baseline, after the recovery-phase; in total 55 minutes	questionnaire (self-efficacy scale; Schwarzer & Jerusalem, 1999)
Positivity	at baseline, after the recovery-phase; in total 55 minutes	questionnaire (positivity scale; Caprara et al., 2012, König, 2012)

Countries

Germany

Outcome results

None listed

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