Effects of Micro-Interventions on Stress Reactivity

Not Applicable

Completed

• Conditions: Physiological Stress; Psychological Stress
• Interventions: Behavioral: Expectation; Behavioral: Acceptance

• Registration Number: NCT04171154
• Lead Sponsor: Philipps University Marburg Medical Center

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.

Detailed Description

Not available

Study Timeline

• Study Start: 2019-08-15
• Study First Submitted: 2019-11-08
• Study First Submitted QC: 2019-11-18
• Study First Posted: 2019-11-20
• Primary Completion: 2020-10-19
• Study Completion: 2020-10-19
• Status Verified: 2021-07
• Last Update Submitted: 2021-07-01
• Last Update Posted: 2021-07-02

Recruitment & Eligibility

• Status: COMPLETED
• Sex: All
• Target Recruitment: 90

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)

Study & Design

• Study Type: INTERVENTIONAL
• Study Design: PARALLEL

Arm && Interventions

Group	Intervention	Description
Expectation	Expectation	Participants are asked to think of three strength which have helped them in prior stressful events. They then have to think of ways how these strength may help them in future stressful situations, i.e. a test in this experiment.
Acceptance	Acceptance	Participants listen to an audio-instruction on cognitive defusion. They shall observe the thoughts and feelings of stress and, with the help of the instruction, distance themselves from it.

Primary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
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 Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
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)

Trial Locations

Locations (1)

Philipps University Marburg Medical Center; 🇩🇪 Marburg, Germany