NCT05610839

A RCT of a Fully-automated Self-help AEBT Website

Completed NA Last updated 14 December 2023

What this trial tests

NA trial testing Acceptance-Enhanced Behavior Therapy in AEBT Website With Check-ins in 101 participants. Completed in 29 September 2023.

Timeline

8 November 2022

Primary endpoint
29 September 2023

29 September 2023

Quick facts

Lead sponsor	Utah State University
Phase	NA
Status	Completed
Study type	INTERVENTIONAL
Allocation	randomized
Design	parallel
Masking	none
Primary purpose	treatment
Enrollment	101
Start date	8 November 2022
Primary completion	29 September 2023
Estimated completion	29 September 2023
Sites	1 location across United States

Drugs / interventions tested

• Acceptance-Enhanced Behavior Therapy

Conditions studied

• AEBT Website With Check-ins — all drugs for AEBT Website With Check-ins →
• AEBT Website Without Check-ins — all drugs for AEBT Website Without Check-ins →

Sponsor

Utah State University

Who can join

18 and older, any sex, with AEBT Website With Check-ins or AEBT Website Without Check-ins. Patients with the condition only — healthy volunteers not accepted.

Sponsor's own description

Trichotillomania (TTM) is characterized by hair pulling that is repetitive in nature leading to notable hair loss, causing clinically significant distress and resulting in impairments across social and functional domains (APA, 2013). Trichotillomania causes significant social impairment including affecting close relationships, pursuing occupational changes or advancement, or interfering with schooling (Grant et al., 2017; Woods, Flessner, Franklin, Wetterneck, et al., 2006). The core of the treatment of trichotillomania has traditionally been Habit Reversal Training (HRT) (Twohig, Bluett, et al., 2014). Another form of treatment that is gaining empirical support is Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) which has been studied in four randomized controlled trials, one studying ACT as a standalone treatment (Lee, Homan, et al., 2018), and three examining ACT combined with HRT (Twohig et al., 2021; Lee, Haeger, et al., 2018; Woods, Wetterneck, et al., 2006) which demonstrated efficacy of the combined treatment in decreasing pulling symptom severity.

The prevalence of trichotillomania in the US is 1-2% of the population and yet treatment access is limited by many issues including processionals' lack of knowledge of the disorder and low treatment accessibility (Walther et al., 2010). ACT- enhanced behavior therapy has been implemented using telehealth to reach a larger population (42.2% decrease pre-to-post treatment), but telehealth still requires therapist time and incurs notable costs (Lee, Haeger, et al., 2018). The present study aims to address the gap in trichotillomania treatment accessibility by examining the role of check-ins on adherence and efficacy on afully automated, web-based ACT-enhanced HRT treatment for adults with trichotillomania across the United States. We predict that the condition with check-ins will increase adherence and efficacy of the treatment significantly more than the condition without check-ins. Additionally, we predict that hair pulling severity and psychological flexibility will be significantly improved by the condition with check-ins compared to the condition without check-ins.

Publications & conference data

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