RECRUITINGINTERVENTIONAL

Multi-session, Personalized Cognitive Bias Modification for Thought-Action-Fusion

Effects of Multi-session, Personalized Cognitive Bias Modification for Thought-Action-Fusion Among Adults with Obsessive-Compulsive Symptoms: a Randomized Controlled Trial

About This Trial

Thought-Action-Fusion (TAF) is a cognitive bias that posits (1) having unwanted thoughts is morally equivalent to acting upon the thoughts (TAF-Moral; e.g., "Thinking about harming a child is as immoral as actually harming a child") and (2) having unwanted thoughts will increase the likelihood of the thoughts happening in real life (TAF-Likelihood; e.g., "My mother will get into a car accident, because I thought about it"). Given its central role in the development and maintenance of OCD, TAF has emerged as a potential treatment target for obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). Previous research has demonstrated that TAF is indeed a malleable construct. This study aims to examine the effects of a multi-session, personalized cognitive bias modification (CBM) for thought-action-fusion (TAF) on improving obsessive-compulsive (OC) symptoms in a college sample.

Who May Be Eligible (Plain English)

Who May Qualify: - A score of 18 or higher on the Dimensional Obsessive-Compulsive Scale (DOCS) - Aged 18 or higher - Access to a mobile device (i.e., smartphone) Who Should NOT Join This Trial: - Self-reported visual impairment that cannot be adjusted and will prevent them from clearly recognizing words and pictures on mobile screen - Self-reported history of a bipolar disorder or psychotic disorder on a Diagnostic History Scale (DHS) - Inability to adequately understand the study procedure as determined by the responses to comprehension questions provided at the time of the consent Always talk to your doctor about whether this trial is right for you.

Original Eligibility Criteria

View original clinical language

Inclusion Criteria: * A score of 18 or higher on the Dimensional Obsessive-Compulsive Scale (DOCS) * Aged 18 or higher * Access to a mobile device (i.e., smartphone) Exclusion Criteria: * Self-reported visual impairment that cannot be adjusted and will prevent them from clearly recognizing words and pictures on mobile screen * Self-reported history of a bipolar disorder or psychotic disorder on a Diagnostic History Scale (DHS) * Inability to adequately understand the study procedure as determined by the responses to comprehension questions provided at the time of the consent

Treatments Being Tested

BEHAVIORAL

CBM-TAF

CBM-TAF aims to modify TAF by training participants to adopt an interpretation style that is inconsistent with TAF (i.e., having unwanted thoughts is not morally equivalent to acting upon them and/or having unwanted thoughts does not increase the likelihood of feared events happening in real life). To personalize the training, CBM-TAF is designed to address 4 subtypes of OCD (as defined by Dimensional Obsessive-Compulsive Scale; Abramowitz et al., 2010), each of which targets either TAF-moral or TAF-likelihood. Participants will indicate two OCD subtypes that are most relevant to their experiences and only complete scenarios that correspond to their chosen subtypes. For each scenario, participants are instructed to enter a missing letter in a fragmented word and resolve its emotional ambiguity. After then, participants will answer a True/False question related to the given scenario to verify their comprehension and consolidate their acquisition of healthier interpretation style.

BEHAVIORAL

CBM-SMP

CBM-SMP is a comparable intervention to CBM-TAF (Siwiec et al., 2023), which aims to provide general education about stress and stress management techniques. It is identical to CBM-TAF in terms of its administration, except for the content of scenarios included in training sessions. For each scenario, participants are instructed to enter a missing letter in a fragmented word. After then, participants will answer a True/False question related to the given scenario in order to verify their comprehension.

Locations (1)

UWM Anxiety Disorders Laboratory

Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States