NCT03146832

Therapeutic Strategies During Exposure to Pain in an Experimental Design

Exposure Works, But How? Testing Different Therapeutic Strategies During Exposure to Pain in an Experimental Design

• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 139 (actual)
• Sponsor: Philipps University Marburg · Academic / Other
• Sex: Female
• Age: 18 Years – 60 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Accepted

Summary

The goal of the present study is to compare different therapeutic strategies (according to habituation model vs. according to the inhibitory learning approach) during exposure to thermal pain in an experimental design.

Detailed description

Exposure therapy is effective for the treatment of individuals with chronic pain and high levels of fear-avoidance. Nevertheless, mechanisms of change for exposure treatment are not sufficiently investigated. According to the habituation model, the activation of a fear structure leads to a habituation of the initial physical response. Therefore, the therapeutic recommendation is to focus on the reduction of fear during exposure sessions. According to the inhibitory learning approach, however, exposure experiences compete with the original US-CS fear association. Therefore, the therapist should maximize the violation of negative expectancies. The present study intends to compare both strategies during the exposure to pain in an experimental design.

Conditions

• Pain, Acute

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
BEHAVIORAL	Exposure therapy (according to habituation approach)	Exposure instruction focuses on fear reduction during exposure sessions
BEHAVIORAL	Exposure therapy (according to inhibitory learning approach)	Exposure instruction focuses on expectation violation during exposure sessions

Timeline

• Start date: 2017-04-01
• Primary completion: 2017-06-15
• Completion: 2017-06-15
• First posted: 2017-05-10
• Last updated: 2017-07-05

Locations

1 site across 1 country: Germany