NCT03216382

The Impact of the Attention Training Technique on Attention Control and High Worry

• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 95 (actual)
• Sponsor: Toronto Metropolitan University · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 18 Years – 65 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Not accepted

Summary

Excessive and uncontrollable worry has been associated with deficits in attention control. The Attention Training Technique (ATT; Wells, 1990) is a 12-minute audio recording that was developed to train attention control, so that individuals could learn to shift their attention away from maladaptive cognitive processes such as worry. The technique has shown to be promising at reducing symptoms across a variety of mental disorders (Knowles, Foden, El-Deredy, \& Wells, 2016) and is recommended for use in people who suffer from chronic worry. To date, little research has been conducted examining the benefits of using this technique in such a population. The present study aims to examine the immediate and short term effects of weekly ATT practice, compared to a control condition, in a population that suffers from high levels of worry about a variety of topics. About one-hundred participants who suffer from chronic worry will be randomly assigned to listen to the ATT or a control recording, every day for a week. Changes in attention control, worry, and cognitive processes will be examined over the course of the intervention period.

Detailed description

People who suffer from pathological worry report that they worry to an excessive degree and that they find it very difficult to control their worry. Deficits in attention control may help to explain why people who worry pathologically find it difficult to shift their attention away from their worry, and back to the task at hand. The Attention Training Technique (ATT; Wells, 1990) was developed to train attentional control, so that individuals could learn to shift the focus of their attention away from maladaptive cognitive processes such as worry. Despite being recommended for use in populations that suffer from excessive worry, there is a dearth of research examining the effects of ATT in such a population. The study aims to examine the immediate (during the intervention) and short-term (right after finishing the intervention) effects of listening to the ATT, compared to the control recording, on attention, worry, and other cognitive processes. This will be the first study to our knowledge to examine the effects of 1 week of daily ATT practice in a sample of people who suffer from chronic worry, and will provide important information for optimizing the treatment of worry in this population.

Conditions

• Excessive Worry

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
BEHAVIORAL	Attention Training Technique	The ATT is a 12-minute audio recording that includes sounds and a voice guiding attention to the sounds. The sounds play continuously during the training task.
BEHAVIORAL	Control Condition	In the control condition, participants listen to an audio recording with the same sounds as the ATT recording, and a voice that delivers placebo instructions.

Timeline

• Start date: 2017-08-15
• Primary completion: 2019-06-26
• Completion: 2019-06-26
• First posted: 2017-07-13
• Last updated: 2021-07-02
• Results posted: 2021-07-02

Locations

1 site across 1 country: Canada