Overcoming Treatment Barriers

Health Care Utilization Clinical Trial

— OBSTACLE-S  

Official title:

Overcoming Treatment Barriers: The Role of Expectations in the Behavioral Intention of Treatment Seeking for Social Anxiety

Clinical Trial Details — Status: Recruiting

Administrative data

• NCT number: NCT06022432
• Other study ID #: 2022-76k
• Status: Recruiting
• Phase: N/A
• Start date: March 17, 2023
• Est. completion date: December 2023

Study information

• Verified date: August 2023
• Source: Philipps University Marburg Medical Center
• Contact: n/a
• Is FDA regulated: No
• Study type: Interventional

Clinical Trial Summary

This study aims to assess whether negative or rather the lack of positive treatment expectations could be positively influenced by online short interventions and increase intention so seek treatment and actual help-seeking behavior when compared to a no-treatment control group. Further, the study investigators like to explore if specifically focusing on intensifying positive treatment expectations vs. a reduction of expectations about negative treatment effects will influence the pattern of results differently.

Description:

The investigators expect that participants receiving an intervention e.g., amplifying positive (performance) expectancies vs. reducing negative (performance) expectancies of psychotherapeutic treatment, will show an increase in intentions to seek treatment and are more likely to report actual treatment-seeking behavior after the intervention when compared with participants who will describe their treatment expectations via a writing task.

Further, the investigators want to explore if the expectancy-modulating interventions will differently affect the intention to seek treatment within socially anxious individuals.

If participants agree, the investigators plan to assess changes in expectations, attitudes as well as actual treatment seeking behavior at a Follow-Up assessment one week later (data from Follow-Up will be analyzed exploratively and is not part of the main hypotheses).

Recruitment information / eligibility

• Status: Recruiting
• Enrollment: 120
• Est. completion date: December 2023
• Est. primary completion date: September 2023
• Accepts healthy volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers
• Gender: All
• Age group: 18 Years to 75 Years

Eligibility

Inclusion Criteria:

• at least 18 years old

• fluent in German (C Level)

• access to a computer device with internet access

Exclusion Criteria:

• non correctable hearing or visual impairment

• current in psychotherapeutic treatment or on a waiting list

• no neurological impairment or psychotic disorders

Related Conditions & MeSH terms

• Health Care Seeking Behavior
• Health Care Utilization

Intervention

Other:
• Video of a patients testimonial
The intervention is a prerecorded video of a re-enacted patient-therapist interaction whereby the patient gives a testimonial about the treatment process while either reducing negative expectations or maximizing positive expectations about therapy, respectively.
• Writing Task
Participants write freely about their current treatment expectations / apprehensions to seek treatment

Locations

Country	Name	City	State
Germany	Philipps-Universität Marburg	Marburg

Sponsors (1)

Lead Sponsor	Collaborator
Philipps University Marburg Medical Center

Country where clinical trial is conducted

Germany, 

Outcome

Type	Measure	Description	Time frame	Safety issue
Other	Treatment-seeking behavior (Behavioral Outcome 2)	If participants agree to participate at our Follow Up, a second behavioral outcome will be assessed. Participants will be asked if they meanwhile have researched more concrete information about social anxiety online, connected with internet platforms or self-support groups, applied for online therapy programs/sessions, contacted or sought professional help for outpatient or psychiatric clinics. All categories have to be answered by a dichotomous scale ("yes" or "no").	At Follow-Up investigation (one week after post measurement)
Primary	Change in Treatment Expectations (Treatment Expectation Questionnaire, "TEX-Q")	Explicit treatment expectations measured by 15 items on a 11point Likert-scale	At baseline (pre-measurement), immediately after intervention (post-measurement, approximately 20 minutes after beginning of study procedure) and at Follow-Up investigation (one week after post measurement)
Primary	Changes in intention to seek treatment	Estimated Probability to seek treatment on a self-generated rating scale from 0 (not likely at all) to 100 (very much likely)	At baseline (pre-measurement), immediately after intervention (post-measurement, approximately 20 minutes after beginning of study procedure) and at Follow-Up investigation (one week after post measurement)
Secondary	Intention to seek treatment (Behavioral Outcome 1)	Participants respond with "yes" or "no" to indicate their interest to receive more concrete information about social anxiety and its treatment possibilities. If the answer was answered with "yes", participants are asked to give their e-mail address to receive information which is used to assess intention to seek treatment in form of a behavioral outcome.	After intervention (post measurement, approximately 30 minutes after beginning of study procedure)