NCT05245370

Modifying Treatment Expectations in Depression: the Role of Social Learning

Completed NA Last updated 29 September 2022

What this trial tests

NA trial testing Control video in Health Care Utilization in 171 participants. Completed in 15 April 2022.

Timeline

14 January 2022

Primary endpoint
15 April 2022

15 April 2022

Quick facts

Lead sponsor	Philipps University Marburg
Phase	NA
Status	Completed
Study type	INTERVENTIONAL
Allocation	randomized
Design	factorial
Masking	double
Primary purpose	basic science
Enrollment	171
Start date	14 January 2022
Primary completion	15 April 2022
Estimated completion	15 April 2022
Sites	1 location across Germany

Drugs / interventions tested

• Control video
• Rationale video
• Clinician testimonial
• Patient testimonial

Conditions studied

• Health Care Utilization — all drugs for Health Care Utilization →

Sponsor

Philipps University Marburg

Who can join

18 and older, any sex, with Health Care Utilization. Patients with the condition only — healthy volunteers not accepted.

Sponsor's own description

Research has shown that treatment expectations play a major role in the course of mental disorders and that positive expectations have a beneficial impact on treatment outcomes. Expectations can develop in different ways, whereby an emerging body of research has shown that social learning plays a significant role in this process. To date, most studies have investigated the impact of social learning on treatment expectations in the context of pain relief. Little is known about the impact of social learning in the psychotherapeutic treatment of depression. Therefore, this study investigates whether treatment expectations regarding the treatment of depression can be modulated via social learning, i.e., showing positive treatment testimonials.

Hypotheses:

H1: The investigators predict that individuals who are provided with treatment testimonials (experimental groups) show a greater change toward positive treatment expectations compared to individuals who do not view such testimonials (control groups).

H2: The investigators predict that individuals provided with treatment testimonials will, compared to the control groups, show a greater change in secondary outcome variables in the following ways: a greater decrease in perceived uncertainty/ barriers; a greater decrease in stigma/ negative attitudes toward psychotherapy; a greater increase in intentions to seek therapy; a greater willingness to try the specific technique described in the videos.

H3: Inter-individual differences in the effect of provided testimonials are associated with pre-existing factors: level of depressive symptoms; intolerance of uncertainty; treatment experience; locus of control; general self-efficacy; dispositional optimism and cognitive immunization tendencies.

Exploratory questions:

1. An exploratory aim of this study is to assess whether viewing different types of testimonials (clinician delivered; patient-delivered; combination of both) has differential effects on treatment expectation change.
2. Furthermore, the investigators want to assess whether implicit treatment expectations change in a similar pattern as explicit treatment expectations.
3. Based on the results of H1 and H2, the investigators aim to assess possible mechanisms of change: e.g. assess whether a change in treatment expectations is mediated by a decrease in perceived uncertainty or a change in stigma/ attitudes toward therapy.

Publications & conference data

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