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Longterm Effects of Expectations on Mood

Not Applicable
Completed
Conditions
Healthy Participants
Registration Number
NCT03607214
Lead Sponsor
Philipps University Marburg Medical Center
Brief Summary

The study tries to identify whether positive expectations, induced with a placebo nasal-spray, have short- and longterm effects on participant's mood.

Detailed Description

Healthy volunteers are informed that a new application method for a well-known antidepressant would be tested. They will randomly be assigned to the experimental group (taking the antidepressant which is in fact an active placebo) or the control group (not taking a placebo). Then participants watch a well established film sequence to induce sadness. Sadness is assessed before and after receiving the nasal spray and watching the film sequence. In the seven consecutive days the participant's mood is assessed each day, only the experimental group is taking the placebo each day. Afterwards participants will watch another sad film sequence and sadness will be assessed before and afterwards.

Recruitment & Eligibility

Status
COMPLETED
Sex
All
Target Recruitment
90
Inclusion Criteria
  • healthy volunteers
  • fluent in German language
Exclusion Criteria
  • mental disorders
  • allergic to capsaicin
  • allergic to sesame oil
  • intake of psychopharmacological drugs
  • intake of illegal drugs in the last two weeks
  • consumption of alcohol in the last twelve hours
  • students in medicine, pharmacy, or psychology
  • completed studies in medicine, pharmacy or psychology

Study & Design

Study Type
INTERVENTIONAL
Study Design
PARALLEL
Primary Outcome Measures
NameTimeMethod
Change in Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS-X)Directly before and after watching the film sequence and on the following seven days, each assessment is taking four minutes, in total 36 minutes.

Items of PANAS-X: Sadness Score ("sad", "blue", "downhearted", "alone", "lonely") and Items "Surprised", "concentrating", "happy". All Items will be rated on a visual analogue scale from 0 (not at all) to 10 (very much).

Secondary Outcome Measures
NameTimeMethod
Coping with stress and daily hassles, general mood and concentration.On seven consecutive days, each assesment is taking 3-5 minutes, in total 21 to 35 minutes

The following Items are developed by the authors and will also be rated on a visual analogue scale (VAS) from 0 to 10.

"How do you feel at the moment"? "How did you feel yesterday?" "How stress-resistent did you feel yesterday?" "How stress-resistant do you feel at the moment?"

Trial Locations

Locations (1)

Philipps-Universität Marburg

🇩🇪

Marburg, Deutschland, Germany

Philipps-Universität Marburg
🇩🇪Marburg, Deutschland, Germany

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