Augmentation of Exposure Therapy for High Levels of Social Anxiety Using Post-exposure Naps

Not Applicable

Completed

• Conditions: Social Anxiety Disorder; Sleep Laboratory
• Interventions: Behavioral: Sleep-enhancement of extinction memory

• Registration Number: NCT02325128
• Lead Sponsor: Massachusetts General Hospital

Brief Summary

Investigators will examine whether post-exposure naps can be used to strengthen therapeutic extinction memories formed during exposure therapy for extreme social anxiety. Thirty-two individuals with high levels of social anxiety, evidenced by scores of 60 or greater on the Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale, by self-report during a clinical interview and by demonstrated enhanced psychophysiological reactivity when imagining a socially stressful scenario, will be enrolled as one of four participants in one of eight successive offerings of a validated 5-session exposure-based group treatment for extreme social anxiety. The third and fourth sessions conclude with each participant delivering a speech on a topic individually chosen to elicit significant social anxiety. Following these sessions, participants will go to the sleep laboratory where two will be given a 2-hour sleep opportunity with polysomnographic (PSG) monitoring and two will be similarly instrumented but undergo 2 hours of monitored quiet wakefulness. Before and after treatment, participants will be individually assessed for social anxiety symptoms using standardized self-report instruments and a Trier Social Stress Test (TSST) modified for continuous psychophysiological monitoring. Ambulatory monitoring of home sleep will also be obtained using actigraphy and sleep diaries. The investigators hypothesize that, post treatment, those individuals who napped will show greater questionnaire-based clinical improvement as well as lesser psychophysiological reactivity during the modified TSST compared to those who remained quietly awake. The investigators further hypothesize that characteristics of sleep quality and architecture during naps, specifically durations of total sleep, REM and slow-wave sleep, as well as REM continuity, will predict greater clinical improvement and lesser psychophysiological reactivity to the TSST in those who napped following their third and fourth therapy sessions. Positive results will provide the first proof-of-principle for sleep augmentation of exposure therapy for clinically significant extreme social anxiety.

Detailed Description

Widely replicated studies demonstrate that sleep can enhance memory consolidation. Potential clinical applications of such findings have only begun to be explored. The investigators have recently shown that nocturnal sleep following simulated exposure therapy for high levels of spider fear reduced both psychophysiological and self-reported reactivity when participants were re-exposed to the same and to novel spider stimuli. The proposed research will extend these findings to the more debilitating and clinically important condition of extreme social anxiety. The investigators will examine whether post-exposure naps can be used to strengthen therapeutic extinction memories formed during exposure exercises used in the behavioral treatment of extreme social anxiety. A total of 32 individuals with high levels of social anxiety, evidenced by scores of 60 or greater on the Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale, self-report during a clinical interview and demonstrated enhanced psychophysiological reactivity when imagining a socially stressful scenario, will be enrolled in an exposure-based group treatment for extreme social anxiety. Eight successive therapy groups of 4 patients each will be offered during the 2-year funding period. The third and fourth sessions of this validated 5-week/5-session treatment will involve each participant delivering a speech on a topic individually chosen to elicit significant social anxiety. Following both of these sessions, all 4 participants will go to the nearby Massachusetts General Hospital sleep laboratory where 2 will be given a 2-hour sleep opportunity with polysomnographic (PSG) monitoring and the other 2 will be similarly instrumented but undergo 2 hours of monitored quiet wakefulness (prior to session 3 participants will be randomized to the sleep or wakefulness arm). Before beginning treatment and within several days following the final treatment session, all participants will be individually assessed for social anxiety symptoms using standardized self-report instruments. At these same times, they will undergo a Trier Social Stress Test (TSST) modified for continuous psychophysiological monitoring that also includes repeated Subjective Units of Distress (SUDS) self report and sampling for salivary cortisol. In addition to laboratory PSG, ambulatory monitoring of home sleep with actigraphy and sleep diaries will take place at pre-treatment baseline and during the last 3 weeks of treatment. The investigators hypothesize that those individuals allowed a 2-hour sleep opportunity following exposure sessions, compared to those who remained quietly awake, will show greater questionnaire-based clinical improvement as well as lesser psychophysiological and SUDS reactivity during the modified TSST. The investigators further hypothesize that characteristics of sleep quality and architecture during naps, specifically durations of total sleep, REM sleep and slow-wave sleep as well as REM continuity, will predict clinical improvement and diminished TSST reactivity in those who napped. To help ensure that observed sleep effects are attributable to the two 2-hour sleep opportunities, the investigators will control for actigraph and diary-measured sleep quality during treatment. Positive results will provide the first proof-of-principle for sleep augmentation of exposure therapy for a clinically significant extreme social anxiety.

Study Timeline

• Study First Submitted: 2014-12-19
• Study First Submitted QC: 2014-12-23
• Study First Posted: 2014-12-24
• Study Start: 2015-01
• Primary Completion: 2016-08
• Study Completion: 2016-08
• Status Verified: 2018-11
• Last Update Submitted: 2018-11-19
• Last Update Posted: 2018-11-21

Recruitment & Eligibility

• Status: COMPLETED
• Sex: All
• Target Recruitment: 35

Inclusion Criteria

Inclusion Criteria:

1. Treatment-seeking individuals diagnosed with Social Anxiety Disorder using the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV56 (DSM-5 SCID once available)

2. A score > 60 on the Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale (LSAS)13

3. 18-40 years of age

4. Proficient in English

5. Normal or corrected to normal vision

6. Able to give informed consent

7. Willingness and ability to comply with the requirements of the study protocol

8. Meets psychophysiological screening criteria for inclusion carried out as follows:

   • During a 5-min. baseline period, the candidate participant will sit quietly with skin conductance and orbicularis oculi EMG levels being recorded.
   • Toward the end of this period a loud acoustic stimulus will be presented several times and blink startle EMG and SCR will be recorded.
   • The candidate subject will then be asked to describe, for 2 min., their most fearful and upsetting past social experience.
   • They will then be instructed to silently reimagine this experience as vividly as possible.
   • During this imagination period, the loud acoustic stimulus will again be presented several times and blink startle EMG and SCR will be recorded.
   • Participants for whom mean SCR and blink startle EMG during the imagining period measurably exceed the means of these measures during baseline will be retained in the study whereas those for whom these measures do not change or are reduced will be excluded.
   • This procedure will help ensure that those included in the study will show potentiation of physiological reactivity while anticipating exposure to public speaking.

Exclusion Criteria

1. Any potentially confounding medical illness
2. Lifetime history of any neurological illness or injury including neurodegenerative disorders or dementia, stroke, seizure disorders, neurosurgical procedures, head injury resulting in loss of consciousness for greater than 5 min.
3. Lifetime history, diagnosed by DSM-IV criteria (or DSM-5 once its SCID available), of bipolar disorder, schizophrenia or other psychotic disorder, pervasive developmental disorder, chronic mental disorder due to a medical condition or other potentially confounding chronic mental disorder.
4. Current major depressive, dysthymic or anxiety disorder other than Social Anxiety Disorder or other potentially confounding current mental disorder diagnosed by DSM-IV criteria (or DSM-5 once its SCID available).
5. DSM-IV substance abuse or dependence within the last year, lifetime history of hospitalization for substance abuse (determined at clinical interview) or positive urine toxicology screen at the time of the clinical interview
6. Any evidence of suicidal ideation, violent behavior or psychosis at the clinical interview
7. Use of psychiatric medication within 4 weeks of study (with the exception of 6 weeks for fluoxetine)
8. Current psychotherapy for Social Anxiety Disorder
9. Any indication of a sleep disorder, particularly sleep-disordered breathing, on the Pittsburgh Structured Clinical Interview for Sleep Disorders
10. Sleep onset latency > 1 hr, total sleep time < 5 hr or typical bed time later than 3 AM
11. Overnight shift work or recent travel across multiple time zones
12. > 4 caffeinated beverages per day or > 11 alcoholic beverages per week
13. Nicotine use

Study & Design

• Study Type: INTERVENTIONAL
• Study Design: SINGLE_GROUP

Arm && Interventions

Group	Intervention	Description
Post-Exposure Nap	Sleep-enhancement of extinction memory	Sleep-enhancement of extinction memory: At the end of the third and fourth of 5 exposure therapy sessions, all participants deliver a speech designed to elicit significant social anxiety. Following this speech, this arm will be given a 2-hour sleep opportunity with polysomnographic (PSG) monitoring.
Post-Exposure Wake	Sleep-enhancement of extinction memory	At the end of the third and fourth of 5 exposure therapy sessions, all participants deliver a speech designed to elicit significant social anxiety. Following this speech, this arm will be instrumented for PSG but, instead of napping, will undergo 2 hours of quiet wakefulness. Therefore, this arm will not undergo sleep-enhancement of extinction memory.

Primary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Fear-potentiated startle	5 weeks	Orbicularis oculi electromyography used to record the blink startle response to loud tones while anticipating delivering a speech to an audience and during an initial baseline period; difference measure obtained by subtracting the baseline startle response from the startle response recorded while anticipating a fearful situation
Leibowitz Social Anxiety Scale	5 weeks	Validated self-report scale used to assess degree of social anxiety

Secondary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Fear potentiation of loud-tone evoked heart-rate acceleration (HRA) and skin conductance response (SCR)	5 weeks	Electrocardiography records HRA and electrodermal measures record SCR evoked by loud tones while anticipating delivering a speech to an audience; responses to same stimuli recorded during an initial baseline period; difference measure obtained by subtracting baseline HRA and SCR from HRA and SCR recorded while anticipating a fearful situation.
Social Phobia and Anxiety Inventory	5 weeks	Validated self-report scale to assess degree of social anxiety
Pre- to-post TSST change in Spielberger State-Trait Anxiety Inventory-State portion score	up to 5 weeks	Validated self-report scale to assess an individual's current level of anxiety; administered before and after TSST; pre-post difference indexes degree to which the TSST increased state anxiety
Pre- to-post TSST change in salivary cortisol	up to 5 weeks	Salimetrics oral swab used to collect and analyze salivary cortisol levels at baseline and at time points reflective of maximum levels evoked by the speech-performance phase of the TSST.
Fear of Negative Evaluation Scale	5 weeks	Validated self-report scale to assess fear of negative evaluation by others
Clinical Global Impressions Scale	5 weeks	Validated clinician-based evaluation of symptom severity and impairment of functioning
Subjective Units of Distress Ratings	5 weeks	Validated, individually anchored, rating of subjective distress on a scale of 0 to 100
Increase in baseline heart rate from baseline to performance phases of TSST	up to 5 weeks	Electrocardiography records maximum heart rate during an initial baseline; difference measure subtracts baseline from the maximum heart-rate during actual delivery of the speech in TSST performance phase.
Increase in mean corrugator supercilii EMG from baseline to performance phases of TSST	5 weeks	Electromyography records mean corrugator supercilii muscle tone during baseline period; difference measure subtracts baseline from the mean corrugator supercilii muscle tone recorded during actual delivery of speech in the TSST performance phase.

Trial Locations

Locations (2)

Massachusetts General Hospital, One Bowdoin Square; 🇺🇸 Boston, Massachusetts, United States

Massachusetts General Hospital-East, Building 149; 🇺🇸 Charlestown, Massachusetts, United States