NCT05458362: Group BEAST

Brief Enhanced Anxiety Sensitivity Treatment (Group)

Completed NA Last updated 12 December 2022

What this trial tests

NA trial testing Brief Enhanced Anxiety Sensitivity Treatment (Group BEAST) in Anxiety Sensitivity in 73 participants. Completed in 4 July 2022.

Timeline

9 February 2022

Primary endpoint
4 July 2022

4 July 2022

Quick facts

Lead sponsor	Ohio University
Phase	NA
Status	Completed
Study type	INTERVENTIONAL
Allocation	randomized
Design	parallel
Masking	none
Primary purpose	treatment
Enrollment	73
Start date	9 February 2022
Primary completion	4 July 2022
Estimated completion	4 July 2022
Sites	1 location across United States

Drugs / interventions tested

• Brief Enhanced Anxiety Sensitivity Treatment (Group BEAST)
• Control group Anxiety Sensitivity Treatment

Conditions studied

• Anxiety Sensitivity — all drugs for Anxiety Sensitivity →
• Anxiety — all drugs for Anxiety →

Sponsor

Ohio University

Who can join

18 and older, any sex, with Anxiety Sensitivity or Anxiety. Patients with the condition only — healthy volunteers not accepted.

Sponsor's own description

One-third of the U.S. population experience anxiety disorders in their lifetime and only 25% of them seek treatment, reporting logistics and cost of treatment among the primary barriers. A potential way to prevent and treat multiple anxiety disorders is to target the risk factors that contribute to their etiology. One such well-researched risk factor is anxiety sensitivity (AS), a fear of anxiety-related sensations. Given a need for affordable and accessible brief treatments, we and our colleagues have been iteratively developing Brief Enhanced Anxiety Sensitivity Treatment (BEAST), a one-session virtual treatment targeting AS. Older versions of BEAST include psychoeducation, interoceptive exposure (IE), and IE homework. Several studies showed that the previous versions of BEAST reduced AS and, through the reductions in AS, they also reduced anxiety. However, the effect sizes for the decrease in anxiety were modest. Efficacy and personalization may be improved using Ecological Momentary Intervention (EMI). EMI delivers brief interventions remotely in real-time and in natural settings. The goal of the current study is to test the efficacy of adding EMI to BEAST. Participants will be randomly assigned to EMI and control (no EMI) conditions. All participants will receive a virtual 1.5-hour-long intervention group session facilitated by a therapist. The EMI group will receive individualized intervention messages helping them to use new skills for two weeks after the session. After the two-week EMI period, all participants will complete post-treatment measures of AS and anxiety. A month later, they will complete a follow-up assessing AS and anxiety. The efficacy of the EMI component in reducing AS and anxiety will be tested using multilevel modeling. Improving the efficacy of BEAST, while keeping it brief, affordable, and accessible online, is an important step towards making it a treatment that may be used on a large scale.

Publications & conference data

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