Randomized Controlled Trial Testing Mobile-Based Attention-Bias Modification for Posttraumatic Stress Using Personalized Word Stimuli.
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SUBMITTER: Niles AN
PROVIDER: S-EPMC8373050 | biostudies-literature |
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
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Project description:BackgroundMany individuals with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) have limited access to first-line treatments, warranting the development of remotely-delivered treatments. Attention bias modification (ABM), targeting perturbed threat-related attentional patterns, shows promise when delivered in-person. However, previous studies found ABM to be ineffective when delivered remotely. Randomized clinical trials usually applied two variations of ABM: ABM away from threat or attention control training (ACT) balancing attention between threat-related and neutral stimuli. We tested remotely-delivered ACT/ABM with tighter supervision and video-based interactions that resemble in-clinic protocols. We expected to replicate the results of in-clinic trials, in which ACT outperformed ABM for PTSD.MethodsIn this double-blinded, parallel-group randomized controlled trial, 60 patients diagnosed with PTSD were randomized (ABM n = 30; ACT n = 30). Patients performed eight bi-weekly remotely-delivered supervised ABM/ACT sessions. Symptoms were assessed pre- and post-treatment with Clinician-Administered PTSD Scale 5 (CAPS-5) severity score and PTSD diagnosis as the primary outcomes. Current depressive episode, current anxiety-related comorbidity, and time elapsed since the trauma were examined as potential moderators of treatment outcome.ResultsSignificant decrease in CAPS-5 severity scores and PTSD diagnosis was observed following both ACT and ABM with no between-group difference. Patients without depression or whose trauma occurred more recently had greater symptom reduction in the ACT than the ABM group.ConclusionsContrary to our expectation, symptoms decreased similarly following ACT and ABM. Moderator analyses suggest advantage for ACT in non-depressed patients and patients whose trauma occurred more recently. Further refinements in remotely-delivered ABM/ACT may be needed.
| S-EPMC10248784 | biostudies-literature
Project description:INTRODUCTION:Advances in experimental psychology has highlighted the need to modify underlying automatic cognitive biases, such as attentional biases. While prior research has documented the effectiveness of cognitive bias modification, such interventions tend to be highly repetitive and individuals lack motivation to train over time. Participatory action research methods have been more widely applied in psychiatry to help design interventions that are of relevant to key stakeholders and end users. This study aimed to involve both healthcare professionals and patients in the joint codesign of a gamified mobile attention bias modification intervention. METHODS AND ANALYSIS:The participatory design research method adopted is that of a use-oriented design approach, in the form of a future workshop. 20 participants, comprising 10 healthcare professionals, 5 inpatients and 5 outpatients will be recruited to participate in three separate codesign workshops. In the first phase of the workshop, the participants share their critique of an attention bias modification intervention. In the second phase of the workshop, participants are asked to brainstorm features. The participants are also shown gamification approaches and are asked to consider if gaming elements could enhance the existing application. In the last phase, the participants are asked to sketch a new prototype. ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION:Ethical approval has been obtained from the National Healthcare Group's Domain Specific Research Board (approval number 2018/01363). The findings arising from this study will be disseminated by means of conferences and publications.
| S-EPMC6797300 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Anxiety-related attention bias (AB) is the preferential processing of threat observed in clinical and sub-clinical anxiety. Attention bias modification training (ABMT) is a computerized cognitive training technique designed to systematically direct attention away from threat and ameliorate AB, but mixed and null findings have highlighted gaps in our understanding of mechanisms underlying ABMT and how to design the most effective delivery systems. One neuromodulation technique, transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) across the pre-frontal cortex (PFC) may augment the effects of ABMT by strengthening top-down cognitive control processes, but the evidence base is limited and has not been generalized to current approaches in digital therapeutics, such as mobile applications. The present study was a single-blind randomized sham-controlled design. We tested whether tDCS across the PFC, vs. sham stimulation, effectively augments the beneficial effects of a gamified ABMT mobile app. Thirty-eight adults (Mage = 23.92, SD = 4.75; 18 females) evidencing low-to-moderate anxiety symptoms were randomly assigned to active or sham tDCS for 30-min while receiving ABMT via a mobile app. Participants reported on potential moderators of ABMT, including life stress and trait anxiety. ECG was recorded during a subsequent stressor to generate respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) suppression as a metric of stress resilience. ABMT delivered via the app combined with tDCS (compared to sham) reduced AB and boosted stress resilience measured via RSA suppression, particularly for those reporting low life stress. Our results integrating tDCS with ABMT provide insight into the mechanisms of AB modulation and support ongoing evaluations of enhanced ABMT reliability and effectiveness via tDCS.
| S-EPMC10790837 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Attentional bias towards aversive stimuli has been demonstrated in the anxiety disorders and in posttraumatic stress disorder, and attentional bias modification has been proposed as a candidate treatment. This study rigorously assessed attentional bias towards aversive and pleasant visual imagery associated with the presence or absence of a familiar service canine in 23 veterans with chronic military-related posttraumatic stress disorder. Participants were repeatedly tested with and without their service canines present on two tasks designed to elicit spontaneous visual attention to facial and scenic image pairs, respectively. Each stimulus contrasted an emotive image with a neutral image. Via eye-tracking, the difference in visual attention directed to each image was analyzed as a function of the valence contrast and presence/absence of the canine. Across both tasks, the presence of a familiar service canine attenuated the normative attentional bias towards aversive image content. In the facial task, presence of the service canine specifically reduced attention toward angry faces. In that task, as well, accumulated days with the service canine similarly modulated attention toward facial emotion. The results suggest that the presence of a familiar service canine is associated with attenuation of attentional bias to aversive stimuli in chronic military-service-related posttraumatic stress disorder. Questions remain regarding the generalization of such effects to other populations, their dependence on the familiarity, breed, and training of the canine, and on social context.
| S-EPMC5636264 | biostudies-literature
Project description:BackgroundMobile apps are viewed as a promising opportunity to provide support for patients who have posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The development of mobile technologies and apps shows similar trends in PTSD treatment. Therefore, this emerging research field has received substantial attention. Consequently, various research settings are planned for current and further studies.ObjectiveThe aim of this study was to explore the scientific patterns of research domains related to mobile apps and other technologies for PTSD treatment in scholarly publications, and to suggest further studies for this emerging research field.MethodsWe conducted a bibliometric analysis to identify publication patterns, most important keywords, trends for topicality, and text analysis, along with construction of a word cloud for papers published in the last decade (2010 to 2019). Research questions were formulated based on the relevant literature. In particular, we concentrated on highly ranked sources. Based on the proven bibliometric approach, the data were ultimately retrieved from the Web of Science Core Collection (Clarivate Analytics).ResultsA total of 64 studies were found concerning the research domains. The vast majority of the papers were written in the English language (63/64, 98%) with the remaining article (1/64, 2%) written in French. The articles were written by 323 authors/coauthors from 11 different countries, with the United States predominating, followed by England, Canada, Italy, the Netherlands, Australia, France, Germany, Mexico, Sweden, and Vietnam. The most common publication type was peer-reviewed journal articles (48/64, 75%), followed by reviews (8/64, 13%), meeting abstracts (5/64, 8%), news items (2/64, 3%), and a proceeding (1/64, 2%). There was a mean of 6.4 papers published per year over the study period. There was a 100% increase in the number of publications published from 2016 to 2019 with a mean of 13.33 papers published per year during this latter period.ConclusionsAlthough the number of papers on mobile technologies for PTSD was quite low in the early period, there has been an overall increase in this research domain in recent years (2016-2019). Overall, these findings indicate that mobile health tools in combination with traditional treatment for mental disorders among veterans increase the efficiency of health interventions, including reducing PTSD symptoms, improving quality of life, conducting intervention evaluation, and monitoring of improvements. Mobile apps and technologies can be used as supportive tools in managing pain, anger, stress, and sleep disturbance. These findings therefore provide a useful overview of the publication trends on research domains that can inform further studies and highlight potential gaps in this field.
| S-EPMC7728532 | biostudies-literature
Project description:BACKGROUND:Advances in experimental psychology have highlighted the need to modify underlying automatic cognitive biases, such as attentional biases. The effectiveness of bias modification has been well studied for substance use disorders. With recent advances in technology, it is now possible to work outside the laboratory with Web-based and mobile-based attention bias interventions. Gamification technologies might also help diminish the repetitiveness of the task and increase the intrinsic motivation to train. The inconsistent findings of the impact of gaming on the effectiveness of mobile interventions call for further work to better understand the needs of patients (users) and health care professionals. OBJECTIVE:The aim of this study was to involve patients, together with health care professionals, in the design of a gamified mobile attention bias modification intervention for substance use disorders. METHODS:The participatory design research method adopted is that of a user-oriented design approach in the form of a future workshop. In the first phase of the workshop, participants shared their critique of an attention bias modification intervention. In the second phase of the workshop, participants were asked to brainstorm features. Participants were also shown gamification approaches and asked to consider if gaming elements could enhance the existing app. In the last phase, participants were asked to sketch a new prototype. RESULTS:Three co-design workshops were conducted with health care professionals, inpatients, and outpatients. There were 20 participants, consisting of 10 health care professionals and 10 patients. When asked to identify the limitations in the existing app, common issues identified were those of the design, visual probe task, and the included images. Outpatients were also concerned with the safety of administration of the intervention. In the brainstorming sessions, health care professionals made recommendations as to how the stimulus, the mechanism of responding, and the presentation of the scores could be enhanced. Inpatient participants recommended the addition of functionalities, such as information on the harms associated with the substance use, and for there to be enhancements in the design, images, and task. Outpatient participants perceived a need to improve the images and presentation of the results and recommended the inclusion of gaming features. There were differences in opinion on the inclusion of gaming features, as only health care professionals endorsed their inclusion. In the last phase of the workshop, participants were tasked with the conceptualization of prototypes, and the commonality in the design was for a gradual shortening of the interval for stimulus/image presentation. CONCLUSIONS:The results from this research will guide the development of an app that meets the specific needs of patients and is still based on a pre-existing validated task paradigm. .
| S-EPMC6797967 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Background: Negative appraisals of the trauma and its sequelae play a crucial role in the development and maintenance of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Experimental studies have shown promise in reducing negative appraisal through Cognitive Bias Modification (CBM) training. Objective: To determine whether an online CBM training designed to modify dysfunctional appraisals is successful in reducing appraisal bias in PTSD patients. Method: In this double-blinded 2-arm randomised clinical trial, 107 patients with PTSD were randomly allocated to active (n = 49) or control online CBM training (n = 57). Training comprised the completion of four sessions of online CBM training within one week. Change in bias, as measured by a scenario task and questionnaire (i.e. PostTraumatic Cognition Inventory), was the primary outcome. Secondary outcome included change in PTSD symptoms. Assessments took place prior to training, during training sessions, post-training and at 1- and 6-month follow-up. Results: Intent-to-treat analysis indicated that there was no interaction effect of condition by time. Regardless of training condition, participants showed a small to moderate decline in appraisal bias and PTSD symptoms from pre- to post-training. In both conditions, bias change during training sessions was related to decline in PTSD symptomatology following training. No moderators of outcome were found. Conclusions: There was no evidence that active training was more effective than control training in reducing dysfunctional appraisals. In both conditions, participants showed a decline in dysfunctional appraisals and PTSD symptoms following training. Importantly, bias reduction during training was related to PTSD symptom decline following training. Explanations and future research directions are discussed.
| S-EPMC6691883 | biostudies-literature
Project description:ObjectivesTo investigate whether posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSS) are related to attentional bias towards cancer-related stimuli among parents of children recently diagnosed with cancer.MethodsSixty-two parents completed questionnaires measuring PTSS, depression, and anxiety and the emotional Stroop task via the Internet. The emotional Stroop task included cancer-related words, cardiovascular disease-related words, and neutral words.ResultsParticipants were split in two groups based on the median of PTSS: High-PTSS and Low-PTSS. There was a significant interaction between word-type and group and a planned contrast test of this interaction indicated that the High-PTSS group had longer response latencies on cancer-related words compared to the other word-type and group combinations.ConclusionsFindings suggest that PTSS are related to attentional bias towards cancer-related stimuli among parents of children recently diagnosed with cancer. Implications of this finding for the understanding of PTSS in this population, future research, and clinical practice are discussed.
| S-EPMC4817976 | biostudies-literature
Project description:BackgroundRandomized control trials (RCTs) comparing attention control training (ACT) and attention bias modification (ABM) in posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) have shown mixed results. The current RCT extends the extant literature by comparing the efficacy of ACT and a novel bias-contingent-ABM (BC-ABM), in which direction of training is contingent upon the direction of pre-treatment attention bias (AB), in a sample of civilian patients with PTSD.MethodsFifty treatment-seeking civilian patients with PTSD were randomly assigned to either ACT or BC-ABM. Clinician and self-report measures of PTSD and depression, as well as AB and attention bias variability (ABV), were acquired pre- and post-treatment.ResultsACT yielded greater reductions in PTSD and depressive symptoms on both clinician-rated and self-reported measures compared with BC-ABM. The BC-ABM condition successfully shifted ABs in the intended training direction. In the ACT group, there was no significant change in ABV or AB from pre- to post-treatment.ConclusionsThe current RCT extends previous results in being the first to apply ABM that is contingent upon AB at pre-treatment. This personalized BC-ABM approach is associated with significant reductions in symptoms. However, ACT produces even greater reductions, thereby emerging as a promising treatment for PTSD.
| S-EPMC6520210 | biostudies-literature
Project description:ObjectiveAttention bias modification training (ABMT) is purported to reduce depression by targeting and modifying an attentional bias for sadness-related stimuli. However, few tests of this hypothesis have been completed.MethodThe present study examined whether change in attentional bias mediated a previously reported association between ABMT condition (active ABMT, sham ABMT, assessments only; N = 145) and depression symptom change among depressed adults. The preregistered, primary measure of attention bias was a discretized eye-tracking metric that quantified the proportion of trials where gaze time was greater for sad stimuli than neutral stimuli.ResultsContemporaneous longitudinal simplex mediation indicated that change in attentional bias early in treatment partially mediated the effect of ABMT on depression symptoms. Specificity analyses indicated that in contrast to the eye-tracking mediator, reaction time assessments of attentional bias for sad stimuli (mean bias and trial level variability) and lapses in sustained attention did not mediate the association between ABMT and depression change. Results also suggested that mediation effects were limited to a degree by suboptimal measurement of attentional bias for sad stimuli.ConclusionWhen effective, ABMT may improve depression in part by reducing an attentional bias for sad stimuli, particularly early on during ABMT. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).
| S-EPMC9392903 | biostudies-literature