Home-Delivered Attention Control Treatment for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)

Tel Aviv University60 enrolled

Overview

The aim of the study is to explore the efficacy of home-delivered Attention Control Training (ACT) for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Three randomized controlled trials have shown that attention bias modification (ABM) protocols applying attention control training (ACT) aimed to balance attention between threat-related and neutral stimuli are efficient in reducing PTSD symptoms. However, contrary to in-clinic administration, such as applied in the above mentioned studies, home-delivered ABM was not effective in reducing symptoms among treatment-seeking patients. It is crucial to continue examining the efficacy of home-delivered ACT as PTSD entails functional impairments that might impede treatment-seeking patients from reaching to clinics to receive treatment. This could also inform other ABM protocols designated to treat other disorders. To overcome some critical differences between home and lab environments, the investigators developed a home-delivered ACT protocol that resembles as much as possible the typical-in-lab protocol. Specifically, participants will be accompanied during their training sessions using internet-based video conference, permitting a better control for the physical environment before and during the session and a direct interaction with the experimenters. To test its efficacy, the investigators will recruit participants that are diagnosed with PTSD and will be randomly assigned to one of two home-delivered conditions: ACT and a control ABM condition. It is hypothesized that home-delivered ACT will produce greater reduction in PTSD symptoms relative to a control ABM protocol. It is also expected that ACT will reduce attention bias variability to a greater extent compared to the control condition.

Study Type

Interventions

Attention Control Training (ACT)BEHAVIORAL

A home-delivered version of ACT will be administered in this study. ACT will be comprised of 8 sessions with a variation of the dot-probe task in which the target probe replaces the neutral and threat stimuli with an equal probability to reduce attention bias variability (ABV). In addition, sessions will include video conference with the experimenter. This condition has found to be more effective in PTSD symptom reduction compared to ABM.

Attention Bias Modification (ABM)BEHAVIORAL

A home-delivered version of ABM will be administered in this study. ABM will be comprised of 8 sessions with a variation of the dot-probe task in which the target probe always replaces the threat stimuli to induce diversion of attention away from threat. In addition, sessions will include video conference with the experimenter. This condition has found to be have an inferior effect on PTSD symptom reduction compared to ACT, and thus, this ABM condition has been chosen as a control condition.

Eligibility

Sex: ALLMin age: 18 YearsMax age: 65 Years

Medical Language ↔ Plain English

Inclusion Criteria: * Meeting a current diagnosis of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) according to DSM-V (American Psychiatric Association, 2013); * Having a home PC with internet access, web cam, microphone and speakers. Operation system must be windows 7 or a newer version. Exclusion Criteria: * A diagnosis of psychotic or bipolar disorders. * A diagnosis of a neurological disorder (i.e., epilepsy, brain injury). * Suicidal ideation. * Drugs or alcohol abuse. * Non-fluent Hebrew. * A pharmacological or psychotherapy treatment that is not stabilized in the past 3 months (a stable treatment will not be a reason for exclusion from the study).

Outcomes

Primary Outcomes

Change from baseline of the total severity score of the CAPS-5 interview

The Clinician Administered PTSD Scale (CAPS-5), is a structured interview that will be used to make a diagnosis of PTSD according to the DSM-V criteria. This interview is consists of 30 items regarding the frequency and intensity of PTSD symptoms and a total score of severity is been rated, with higher scores denoting higher symptom severity.

Time frame: up to 2 weeks pre-treatment and 1-2 weeks post-treatment

Secondary Outcomes

Change from baseline of the total score of the PTSD Checklist (PCL-5)

The PCL-5, is a 20-item National Center for PTSD Checklist of the Department of Veterans Affairs. Scores can range from 0 to 80, with higher scores reflecting more symptoms of PTSD.