A pill against fear and phobia? The effects of propranolol on memories of individuals suffering from dental phobia. A prospective double blind randomized controlled trial.

Conditions: anxiety
10002861

Registration Number: NL-OMON34861

Lead Sponsor: niversiteit van Amsterdam

Brief Summary: Not available

Detailed Description: Not available

Recruitment & Eligibility

Status: Pending

Sex: Not specified

Target Recruitment: 60

Inclusion Criteria

Patients will be admitted to the study if they present with a formal diagnosis of specific phobia (i.e., dental phobia), are over 18 years, and are willing to give informed consent.

Exclusion Criteria

Patients will be excluded if they present with (a) a systolic blood pressure (SBP) <100 mm Hg; (b) asthma, heart failure, heart block, a cardiac arrhythmia, or insulin-requiring diabetes; (c) previous adverse reaction to a ß-blocker; (d) use of another ß-blocker; (e) pregnant or breast feeding; and (f) being in therapy elsewhere if not willing to suspend that treatment until the end of the study.

Study & Design

Study Type: Interventional

Study Design: Not specified

Primary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
<p>- The primary outcome measure used in this trial is the Short version of the<br /><br>Dental Anxiety Inventory (S-DAI; Aartman, 1998). The S-DAI is a nine-item scale<br /><br>measuring dental anxiety. Responses are scored 15, giving total scores ranging<br /><br>from 9 (not anxious at all) to 45 (extremely anxious).<br /><br>- VAS-scales that assess various aspects of the memories. For example, patients<br /><br>will be asked to rate the extent to which various emotions (e.g., sad, guilty,<br /><br>ashamed, anxious, angry, helpless) accompanied their memories, on a scale from<br /><br>0 (not at all) to 100 (very much so). In addition, patients will be asked to<br /><br>rate the vividness of two key-memories, their sense of nowness* and<br /><br>re-experiencing of physical sensations and emotions that were present in the<br /><br>original event, impact in terms of interference with daily activities,<br /><br>uncontrollability, and distress caused by the intrusion over the past week. </p><br>

Secondary Outcome Measures