NCT02330627

Positive Valence System Enhancement Treatment for Anxiety and Depression: Clinical Efficacy and Neural Changes

• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 29 (actual)
• Sponsor: University of California, San Diego · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 18 Years – 55 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Not accepted

Summary

The proposed project aims to test the efficacy and neural correlates of a behavioral treatment program comprised of positive activity interventions in a sample of individuals seeking treatment for anxiety or depression. Participants will be randomly assigned to an immediate or delayed treatment condition, and will be compared on measures of positive and negative emotions, brain responses to reward and punishment/loss, subjective well-being, and symptoms at baseline and post-treatment.

Detailed description

Current treatment approaches for anxiety and depression emphasize the reduction of negative emotions and distress as the central goal of treatment. However, these conditions are also characterized by low levels of positive emotions, which, although fundamental for life satisfaction and well-being, have traditionally not been a focus of treatment. The proposed project aims to test the efficacy of an integrated treatment regimen designed to modulate functioning of core component processes of the positive emotion system. Specifically, we will implement positive emotion enhancement procedures, previously tested and validated in non-clinical samples (Huffman et al., 2011; Lyubomirsky et al., 2005), in a broad community sample of n=30 individuals seeking treatment for anxiety or depression. Participants will be randomly assigned to a multi-session positive valence system targeted treatment (n=15) or a waitlist control group (n=15). Participants will be assessed at baseline and post-treatment and compared on measures of positive and negative emotions, brain responses to reward and punishment/loss, subjective well-being, and symptoms. Aim 1 will test the hypothesis that participants assigned to the positive emotion enhancement intervention will display greater increases in positive affect and enhanced activity in neural systems that regulate responses to reward (e.g., nucleus accumbens) relative to participants in the waitlist control group. Aim 2 will explore whether the effects of the positive emotion system treatment generalize to parallel measures of the negative emotion system (i.e., negative affect and neural reactivity to aversive outcomes). We will also explore the effects of the intervention on subjective well-being and life satisfaction, and will examine the relationship between changes in subjective emotions and neural indices of positive and negative valence functioning with changes in well-being and life satisfaction.

Conditions

• Anxiety Disorders and Symptoms
• Depression

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
BEHAVIORAL	Positive Valence System Treatment	Clinician-administered one-hour treatment sessions focused on presenting rationale and instructions for completing positive activity exercises (e.g., gratitude, acts of kindness) between sessions.

Timeline

• Start date: 2014-04-01
• Primary completion: 2015-07-01
• Completion: 2016-03-01
• First posted: 2015-01-05
• Last updated: 2021-11-08
• Results posted: 2020-04-03

Locations

1 site across 1 country: United States