This project seeks to identify neural mechanisms underlying the tendency for anxious individuals to pay more attention to threatening information than to other types of information. A computerized treatment designed to train individuals to reduce their attention towards threat will be tested, with a focus on understanding the aspects of brain function that predict response to the treatment. This work could ultimately lead to the ability to treat anxiety more effectively by directly targeting the aspects of brain function that are altered in a given patient.
Study Type
INTERVENTIONAL
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Purpose
TREATMENT
Masking
DOUBLE
Enrollment
70
Excessive attention to threat is theorized to be a critical contributor to chronic anxiety symptoms and related negative health consequences. Attention Bias Modification, which directly targets this mechanism, is a highly cost-effective intervention with growing empirical support for its potential efficacy in clinically anxious populations.
A control version of computerized attention training.
University of Pittsburgh Department of Psychiatry
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States
CAPS--Hypervigilance item
Time frame: 1 month
Mood and Anxiety Symptoms Questionnaire
Time frame: 1 month
Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview (MINI)
Time frame: 1 month
Attentional bias towards threat (Performance-based assessment of attentional bias towards threat based on reaction times and eye tracking)
Performance-based assessment of attentional bias towards threat based on reaction times and eye tracking
Time frame: immediate
Penn State Worry Questionnaire
Time frame: 1 month
Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale
Time frame: 1 month
World Health Organization Disability Assessment Scale (WHODAS)
Time frame: 1 month
Speilberger State-Trait Anxiety Inventory
Time frame: 1 month
Beck Anxiety Inventory
Time frame: 1 month
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