The purpose of this study is to determine whether a computerized intervention designed to reduce appearance and evaluation related interpretation biases will reduce symptoms associated with body dysmorphic disorder.
The present study aims to examine the feasibility of a remote treatment for body dysmorphic disorder delivered via the Internet. To evaluate the efficacy of the IBM protocol we have developed in reducing negative appearance and evaluative related interpretations, we will conduct a two-arm randomized controlled trial over the internet. Individuals with a diagnosis of body dysmorphic disorder (N = 40) will be randomized to one of two conditions: 1) IBM or 2) progressive muscle relaxation. Each condition will consist of eight 10-25 minute treatment sessions. Participants will complete two sessions per week for four weeks and will be administered assessments at pre-treatment, one week post-treatment and at 3-month follow-up. We hypothesize that: 1) IBM will lead to greater reductions in BDD symptoms than the PMR condition; 2) IBM will lead to greater reductions in depression, anxiety and suicidal ideation than the PMR condition; 3) IBM will lead to greater reductions in threat interpretations and greater increases in benign interpretations than the PMR condition; 4) The effects of condition on BDD symptoms will be mediated by changes in BDD-related interpretation bias; and 5) The effects of training in the IBM condition will be maintained at the 3-month follow-up assessments.
Study Type
INTERVENTIONAL
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Purpose
TREATMENT
Masking
SINGLE
Enrollment
50
Eight 10-25 minute sessions of interpretation modification to reduce negative interpretation biases related to appearance.
Eight 15-minute sessions of progressive muscle relaxation (PMR).
Florida State University Psychology Department
Tallahassee, Florida, United States
Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale Modified for Body Dysmorphic Disorder (BDD-YBOCS; Phillips et al., 1997)
Measures past-week BDD symptom severity
Time frame: change from baseline at one-week post treatment and 3-months post-treatment
Beck Depression Inventory (BDI-II; Beck, Steer, & Brown, 1996)
Measures depressive symptom severity
Time frame: change from baseline at one-week post treatment and 3-months post-treatment
Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI; Steer & Beck, 1997)
Measure anxious symptom severity
Time frame: change from baseline at one-week post treatment and 3-months post-treatment
Depressive Symptom Index-Suicidality Subscale
Measure severity of recent suicidality
Time frame: change from baseline at one-week post treatment and 3-months post-treatment
Body Dysmorphic Disorder Word Sentence Association Paradigm (BDD-WSAP; modified from Hindash & Amir, 2011)
Measure of strength of BDD-related (i.e. evaluation- and appearance- related threat interpretation biases)
Time frame: change from baseline at one-week post treatment and 3-months post-treatment
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