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Cognitive Bias Modification Training in Adolescents Who Have Experienced Adversity

Not Applicable
Completed
Conditions
Child Neglect
Victimization
Child Abuse
Interventions
Behavioral: Control training
Behavioral: Cognitive bias modification training
Registration Number
NCT03625206
Lead Sponsor
Institute of Psychiatry, London
Brief Summary

Adolescents who have experienced adversity (childhood maltreatment and other forms of broader victimisation experiences) will be randomly allocated to receive a 5-session cognitive bias modification training (with attention and interpretation bias modification modules) or a control condition. Outcome measures include measures of cognitive biases and symptoms of psychopathology; in addition, in a subset of adolescents, brain activity data will be acquired. All adolescents will complete a feedback form, upon which acceptability of the intervention will be assessed.

Detailed Description

Up to 80 adolescents aged 12-18 years who have experienced adversity (childhood maltreatment and other forms of broader victimisation experiences) from India and Nepal will be randomly allocated to receive a 5-session cognitive bias modification training (with attention and interpretation bias modification modules) or a control condition over a 2-week period.

Pre and post-assessment measures include measures of attention and interpretation biases and symptoms of internalising and externalising psychopathology. In addition, in a subset of adolescents, brain activity data acquired using EEG will be acquired either during resting or viewing emotional face stimuli. Data from these measures will be used to generate effect sizes of changes for each group as well as being used in a limited number of significance-testing analysis. All adolescents will complete a feedback form, upon which acceptability of the intervention will be assessed.

Recruitment & Eligibility

Status
COMPLETED
Sex
All
Target Recruitment
50
Inclusion Criteria
  • Adolescents aged 12-18 years
  • Adolescents who have experienced adversity (abuse, neglect) or broader victimisation experiences (conventional crime)
Exclusion Criteria
  • Adolescents who have difficulty reading or understanding what is being read to them
  • Adolescents who are currently at-risk for self-harm
  • Adolescents who are currently experiencing psychotic symptoms
  • Adolescents who are currently experiencing high-level trauma symptoms

Study & Design

Study Type
INTERVENTIONAL
Study Design
PARALLEL
Arm && Interventions
GroupInterventionDescription
Control trainingControl trainingParticipants will receive 5 sessions that involve exercises that are matched to the task demands of the attention bias modification and interpretation bias modification training modules
Cognitive bias modification trainingCognitive bias modification trainingParticipants will receive 5 training sessions, each session including attention bias modification and interpretation bias modification training modules
Primary Outcome Measures
NameTimeMethod
Attention biases for threatening stimuliImmediately after the intervention (post-intervention)

The investigators will use an experimental measure (a visual search task) that uses reaction times (RTs) to different experimental conditions to index the degree to which attention is captured by a threatening over a non-threatening stimulus.

Interpretation biases for threatening explanationsImmediately after the intervention (post-intervention)

The investigators will use an experimental measure (an ambiguous scenarios task) that uses ratings to different experimental trials to index the degree to which individuals endorse threatening over benign interpretations

Secondary Outcome Measures
NameTimeMethod
Symptoms of emotional, behavioural and social problemsImmediately after the intervention (post-intervention)

5 subscales of the Strength and Difficulties questionnaire

Acceptability of interventionImmediately after the intervention (post-intervention)

The investigators have developed a 19-item self-report feedback, comprising quantitative ratings and qualitative responses. Across eleven items, young people rate on a 4-point Likert scale whether they found the training useful, satisfying, engaging, realistic, whether it impacted anxiety, mood, coping strategies, and other difficulties , and whether they would feel motivated to complete the sessions, including without a researcher present. Higher scores reflect greater endorsement. Each of these items will be reported separately rather than used to create composite scores. There are also 8 open ended questions for young people to leave their feedback on aspects they found helpful, unhelpful, liked, disliked, improvements they would want, and other general comments.

Event related potentials to emotional face presentations during Electroencephalogram (EEG) experimentImmediately after the intervention (post-intervention)

P1, N1, P2, N2, P3 event-related potentials during face presentation

Trial Locations

Locations (2)

Psychology Department

🇮🇳

Varanasi, India

Psychology Department, Tribuwan University

🇳🇵

Kathmandu, Nepal

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