Social Anxiety
Conditions
Brief summary
Social anxiety (SA) is a highly prevalent mental health concern, thought to disproportionately affect youth with recent international estimates of more than 30% of individuals reporting clinically elevated symptoms. Despite the prevalence of SA, as few as one in five individuals receive care, due to limited access to evidence-based treatments. Additionally there has been a notable increase in social anxiety since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. This proposal will use iExposure to develop a personalized mechanism-focused approach to optimizing treatment response for individuals with social anxiety by testing standard iExposure against two augmentations that incorporate distinct attention mechanisms (attention guidance and attention control).
Interventions
BEHAVIORALiExposure
There will be 4 treatment sessions, covering the iExposure intervention. The intervention and assessment process is entirely self-guided. Each session will last approximately 60 minutes. Participants will complete 10 mock-interaction trials for each session.
BEHAVIORALiExposure plus attention guidance
The attention guidance condition consists of two unique components in addition to the standard iExposure intervention: (1) the intervention rationale will include information about the importance of visually attending to the faces of the audience; (2) participants will be given a target audience member to focus their gaze on during each impromptu response. They will be told that they should look at and focus on the target audience member for the whole response. In each progressive session the number of trials where the participant is directed to focus on an uninterested audience member will increase.
BEHAVIORALiExposure plus attention control
The attention control condition consists of two unique components in addition to the standard iExposure intervention (1) the intervention rationale will include information about the importance of developing attention control; (2) participants will be given a central region of the screen (non-audience member) to focus on. They will be told that they should look at and focus on the central region for the whole response.
Sponsors
Palo Alto University
Study design
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Intervention model
PARALLEL
Primary purpose
TREATMENT
Masking
NONE
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
ALL
Age
18 Years to No maximum
Healthy volunteers
No
Inclusion criteria
* Age 18 or older * Fluent in English * Leibowitz Social Anxiety Scale \> 47 and endorses both social anxiety items on the Web Screening Questionnaire for Common Mental Disorders
Exclusion criteria
* Currently receiving CBT for Social Anxiety Disorder * Significant visual impairment precluding engagement in the simulated teleconferencing interactions * Unstable dose of psychotropic medications within 6 weeks prior to baseline assessment * Current alcohol or substance use disorder * Current or past bipolar disorder or psychosis
Design outcomes
Primary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale Self Report Version | 0 days | The Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale Self Report Version is a 48-item self-report measure of fear and avoidance concerning social interactions and performance situations (e.g., telephoning in public, talking to people in authority). The range of scores is 0-144; higher scores are worse. |
| Personal Report of Communication Apprehension (PRCA) | 0 days | The Personal Report of Communication Apprehension is a 24-item that assesses anxiety related to speaking in a variety of situation. The range of scores is 24-120; higher scores are worse. |
| Personal Report of Communication Apprehension | 15 days | The Personal Report of Communication Apprehension is a 24-item that assesses anxiety related to speaking in a variety of situation. The range of scores is 24-120; higher scores are worse. |
Secondary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale - Revised | 0 days | The Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale - Revised is a 20-item measure of depression. The range of scores is 0-60; higher scores are worse. |
Countries
United States
Outcome results
None listed