Text Message Treatment for Social Anxiety

Not Applicable

Completed

• Conditions: Social Anxiety
• Interventions: Behavioral: Safety Behavior Fading; Behavioral: Present Centered

• Registration Number: NCT03562650
• Lead Sponsor: Florida State University

Brief Summary

This is an intervention study designed to evaluate a text message based safety behavior fading treatment for people with social anxiety disorder.

Detailed Description

This study hopes to assess whether a month long text message based safety behavior fading protocol is effective in reducing safety behaviors and social anxiety symptoms. Over the course of four consecutive weeks, text messages will be sent to participants the first day of the study and every other day for four weeks (14 texts in total). These text messages will remind participants to either avoid using their three most engaged in safety behaviors (assessed at pre-treatment) or to stay present-focused. The past week frequency of the participants' safety behaviors will be assessed at the beginning of pre-treatment, post-treatment, and four week follow up assessments Participants will be asked to complete an additional online questionnaire for both a post-treatment and a 4-week post-treatment follow up assessment. We hypothesize that: 1) the safety behavior group will show a greater overall reduction in social anxiety symptoms, 2) that the safety behavior group will show a reduction in the frequency of safety behavior use, and 3) that the present-focused group will show an increase in mindfulness.

Study Timeline

• Study Start: 2018-01-27
• Study First Submitted: 2018-02-05
• Study First Submitted QC: 2018-06-18
• Study First Posted: 2018-06-19
• Primary Completion: 2019-03-27
• Study Completion: 2019-03-27
• Status Verified: 2021-01
• Last Update Submitted: 2021-01-26
• Last Update Posted: 2021-01-29

Recruitment & Eligibility

• Status: COMPLETED
• Sex: All
• Target Recruitment: 97

Inclusion Criteria

• Social Phobia Inventory score > 29

Exclusion Criteria

• receiving therapy
• changes in the past 4 weeks with medication for emotional difficulties
• psychotic symptoms

Study & Design

• Study Type: INTERVENTIONAL
• Study Design: PARALLEL

Arm && Interventions

Group	Intervention	Description
Safety Behavior Fading	Safety Behavior Fading	Participants are asked to pick their three most common safety behaviors from a list and then receive texts every other day for a month reminding them to fade those behaviors.
Present Centered	Present Centered	Participants receive texts every other day for a month asking them to try to focus on the present that day.

Primary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Social Phobia Inventory (SPIN)	Change in social anxiety symptoms from baseline to post treatment (4 weeks) and one month follow up (8 weeks)	Self-report scale that measures Social anxiety symptoms. Scores range from 0 to 68 with higher scores indicating higher levels of social anxiety symptoms.

Secondary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Cognitive and Affective Mindfulness Scale-Revised (CAMS-R)	Change in mindfulness from baseline to post treatment (4 weeks) and one month follow up (8 weeks)	Self-report used to measure mindfulness, including awareness of thoughts and feelings. Total scores range from 12 to 48 with higher scores indicating a greater ability to be mindful, present in the moment, and aware of thoughts and feelings.
Subtle Avoidance Frequency Examination(SAFE)	Change in safety behavior use from baseline to post treatment (4 weeks) and one month follow up (8 weeks)	Self report scale used to assess how often people use safety behaviors to cope with their anxiety. Scores range from 33 to 165. Higher total scores are associated with more frequent safety behavior use.

Trial Locations

Locations (1)

Florida State University, Department of Psychology; 🇺🇸 Tallahassee, Florida, United States