Feasibility Test of the Treatment Program iACT-by Proxy - a Single Case Experimental Design
试验速览
- 阶段
- 不适用
- 状态
- 已完成
- 发起方
- 入组人数
- 4
- 试验地点
- 2
- 主要终点
- SMS-data
研究概览
简要总结
Health anxiety by proxy is defined as parents' obsessive worries about their child's health. It is a newly described phenomenon, where the parent has persistent and distressing fears that his or her child may suffer from a serious disease that is being overlooked. These intrusive thoughts may lead to excessive attention directed towards their child's body and a tendency to interpret natural bodily sensations as unnatural and abnormal. As a consequence, parents with health anxiety by proxy may repetitively perform bodily inspections of their child. Besides the stress related to worrying about your child's health, the condition can also cause frequent and unnecessary medical examinations of the child. As a possible consequence of this parental behavior, the child may be at risk of developing similar maladaptive illness behaviors, illness perceptions and illness worries. Currently, the phenomenon is widely overlooked and no treatment for health anxiety by proxy exists.
The aim of the study is to test the feasibility and possible effect of an internet-based treatment program for health anxiety by proxy (iACT-by-proxy) using a single-case experimental design.
Design The iACT-by-proxy is being tested in a single-case experimental design with multiple baselines. In a multiple baseline design the participants have different baseline lengths but the same intervention and follow-up period. The rationale behind the different baseline lengths is that it will be evident if target outcome measures change at intervention entry, but not during baseline. Thus the participants' baseline-period functions as their own control.
Hypotheses
- Patients will report a significant decrease in selected self-report measures of health anxiety by proxy answered every other day when comparing the baseline period to the interven-tion period.
- Patient self-report measures of health anxiety by proxy, emotional distress, and illness perception and catastrophizing when the child has symptoms will have decreased after intervention.
Participants Parents assessed with health anxiety by proxy with children under 18years.
Recruitment Participants are assessed with health anxiety by proxy using the Health Anxiety by Proxy Scale (HAPYS).Participants self-refer to the project through the webpage www.helbredsangst.dk. After diagnostic video-interview they are included in the project.
详细描述
Background
Health anxiety by proxy is a newly described phenomenon, where the parent has persistent and distressing fears that his or her child may suffer from a serious disease that is being overlooked. These intrusive thoughts may lead to excessive attention directed towards their child's body and a tendency to interpret natural bodily sensations as abnormal. As a consequence, parents with health anxiety by proxy may repetitively perform bodily inspections of their child or have medicial examinations conducted (1, 2). As a possible consequence of this parental behavior, the child may be at risk of developing similar maladaptive illness behaviors, illness perceptions and illness worries(3).
Research on parents suffering from health anxiety has found evidence of health anxiety symptoms being transmitted from parent to child (4, 5) indicating that the parent's response to the child's health complaints (6) and how the parent copes with own symptoms may influence the health attitudes and behaviors of the child(7-10). This risk may be especially high if the parent suffers from health anxiety by proxy because the child is exposed to a particular preoccupation with and fear of illness and symptoms. For these reasons health anxiety by proxy is an important but neglected clinical phenomenon. Therefore, it is important to develop and test treatment targeting health anxiety by proxy.
Internet-based treatment is a relatively new approach that compares favourably with face-to-face treatment (15, 16). The Research Clinic for Functional Disorders and Psychosomatics (Research Clinic), Aarhus University Hospital (AUH) has recently developed an internet-based treatment program (iACT) for health anxiety based on principles from Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)(17). This treatment has shown promising results (14, 18) and is used as a template for the development of specialised treatment for parents with health anxiety by proxy. The treatment is called iACT-by proxy and is targeting parents' maladaptive anxiety-driven behaviour towards their child with focus on exposure therapy in the context of ACT principles.
The aim of the study is to test the feasibility and possible effect of the iACT- by proxy treatment program for health anxiety by proxy using a single-case experimental design.
研究设计
- 研究类型
- Interventional
- 分配方式
- Na
- 干预模型
- Single Group
- 主要目的
- Treatment
- 盲法
- None
入排标准
- 年龄范围
- 18 Years 至 —（Adult, Older Adult）
- 性别
- All
- 接受健康志愿者
- 否
入选标准
- •Parents of age
- •Assessed with severe health anxiety by proxy
- •At least one child under 18 years
- •Healthy children without severe hospital-treatment-requiring diagnoses or disabilities
- •Read, write and speak Danish
排除标准
- •Comorbid diagnoses of substance abuse, bipolar disorder, psychotic disorders (ICD-10: F20-29) or autism spectrum disorder.
- •Recently starting up psychotropic drug (with-in the last two months)
- •Suicidal risk
结局指标
主要结局
SMS-data
时间窗: Up to 15 weeks
Four questions assessing patients anxiety level is sent to the patient every day by sms.
次要结局
- The health anxiety by proxy scale(Baseline, 1-3 weeks, 9-11 weeks, 13-15 weeks)
- WHO-5 Well-Being Index(Baseline, 1-3 weeks, 9-11 weeks, 13-15 weeks)
- Experience of Service Questionnaire(13-15 weeks)
- The Negative Effects Questionnaire(13-15 weeks)
- The Whiteley-6 Index(Baseline, 1-3 weeks, 9-11 weeks, 13-15 weeks)
- Internet Evaluation and Utility Questionnaire(13-15 weeks)
- Pain Catastrophizing Scale - parent version(Baseline, 1-3 weeks, 9-11 weeks, 13-15 weeks)
- SCL-8 (emotional distress)(Baseline, 1-3 weeks, 9-11 weeks, 13-15 weeks)
- The Adult Response to Children's Symptoms (ARCS) - parent form (revised)(Baseline, 1-3 weeks, 9-11 weeks, 13-15 weeks)
研究者
Katrine Ingeman Beck
Psychologist
Aarhus University Hospital