NCT03688373

Facing Fears in Big or Smalls Steps?

Completed NA Last updated 6 May 2021

What this trial tests

NA trial testing Cognitive Behavioral Therapy in Specific Phobia in 50 participants. Completed in 4 March 2021.

Timeline

4 October 2017

Primary endpoint
4 March 2021

4 March 2021

Quick facts

Lead sponsor	University of Groningen
Phase	NA
Status	Completed
Study type	INTERVENTIONAL
Allocation	randomized
Design	parallel
Masking	single
Primary purpose	treatment
Enrollment	50
Start date	4 October 2017
Primary completion	4 March 2021
Estimated completion	4 March 2021
Sites	3 locations across Netherlands

Drugs / interventions tested

• Cognitive Behavioral Therapy

Conditions studied

• Specific Phobia — all drugs for Specific Phobia →

Sponsor

University of Groningen

Who can join

Adults 12 to 17, any sex, with Specific Phobia. Patients with the condition only — healthy volunteers not accepted.

Sponsor's own description

Anxiety problems are a major concern of youth mental health given that the prevalence of anxiety disorders in Dutch adolescents aged 12 to 18 is approximately 10 percent. In this group, specific phobias are among the most common. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) with exposure as its key ingredient, takes a prominent place in national guidelines for the treatment of anxiety disorders. These guidelines are based on empirical support that exposure is effective in the treatment of specific phobia. Therapists help phobic adolescents to overcome their fear by gradually, step by step, working their way up from less scary situations to situations that cause a greater deal of anxiety. Although it is clear that exposure is effective, the size of the steps to be taken in this process remains unclear. However, there are multiple reasons to assume that one or the other works best. On the one hand, adolescents will soon gain trust in their own abilities when taking small steps, which enlarges their feeling of self-control (e.g., self-efficacy). On the other hand there is the risk that these small steps might be experienced as safety behavior and avoidance, which is counterproductive to the essence of exposure (i.e., overcoming the fear) and undermines the potential effect. This might result in either a longer treatment or insufficient treatment benefits. Considering this risk, and the fact that confrontation with a feared object or situation in daily life is also not a step-by-step process, this study proposes to evaluate the optimal dosage of exposure, by studying whether exposure in big steps is more effective than exposure in small steps.

Publications & conference data

No peer-reviewed publications indexed yet for this trial. Completed trials usually publish results within 12-18 months.