Therapeutic Evaluative Conditioning to Reduce Adolescents' Self-injurious Thoughts and Behaviors During and After Psychiatric Inpatient Hospitalization

Part of paid clinical trials in Brighton, Massachusetts.

Sponsor
Franciscan Hospital For Children, INC.
Study ID
NCT05796531
Status
Recruiting
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Conditions

  • Self-Injurious Behavior
  • Suicidal Ideation
  • Suicide Attempts

Eligibility Criteria

Sex
ALL
Age
12 Years - 19 Years
Healthy Volunteers
Not accepted

Interventions

  • Therapeutic Evaluative Conditioning — BEHAVIORAL
    Participants are told which pictures are "matched pairs." They find the "matched pairs" among 4 or 8 pictures. By associating pictures and words associated with SITB (e.g., pictures of cut skin, pictures of people engaging in potentially suicidal behaviors, and the word "death") with naturally aversive images (e.g., snakes and spiders), it increases the aversion to SITB. The second goal is to increase liking toward the self by pairing self-relevant stimuli (e.g., the participant's name or other self-relevant details, as well as words like "I" and "me").
  • Neutral comparison condition — BEHAVIORAL
    Match neutral pictures to account for doing an intervention.

Study Details

Suicide is the 2nd leading cause of death among adolescents, with the highest risk period for suicide being the month following psychiatric inpatient hospitalization. The investigators propose testing a brief, scalable intervention using evaluative conditioning aimed at reducing suicidal thoughts and behaviors among adolescents during and after inpatient hospitalization. Scalable interventions, such as the one proposed that reduce suicide risk during this markedly high-risk period, could result in large-scale decreases in suicide death.

Key Dates

Start date
Mar 31, 2023
Status verified
Jul 2024
Primary completion
Aug 15, 2026
Completion
Dec 31, 2026

Study Design

Enrollment
155 participants (estimated)
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Intervention model
PARALLEL
Primary purpose
TREATMENT

Arms

  • Active Comparator: Active intervention arm
    Participants will complete the intervention on a mobile device.
  • Sham Comparator: Control arm
    Participants will complete the sham comparator on a mobile device.

Primary Outcome Measure

Self-injurious thoughts and behaviors [ Time Frame: During inpatient hospitalization (average 14 days), plus an additional two months post- hospitalization. ]

Central Contacts

Locations (1)

FacilityCityStateZIPSite coordinators
Franciscan Hospital For Children, Inc.BrightonMassachusetts02135
Jane O'Brien, M.D.
[email protected]
617-779-5811
Ralph Buonopane, Ph.D.
[email protected]
617-779-1689

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Franciscan Hospital For Children, Inc.· Brighton, MA

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