NCT05372744

Affect-regulatory Characteristics of Deceptive Placebos

The Influence of Expectations on Affect-regulatory Characteristics of Deceptive Placebos: An Experimental Investigation

• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 127 (actual)
• Sponsor: Philipps University Marburg · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 18 Years – 75 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Accepted

Summary

The study tries to identify whether specifically framed expectations, induced with an active placebo nasal-spray, have effects on affective regulation processes and rumination.

Detailed description

Healthy volunteers are informed that a new application method for an antidepressant, specialized on positively influencing the experience of aversive emotional states would be tested. They will randomly be assigned to a no treatment control group (not taking a placebo) or to one of the two treatment groups: Participants will be taking the antidepressant (which is in fact an active placebo) which will either protect them from experiencing intense emotional reactions and rumination (anticipatory group) or help them to regulate emotional states quicker as well as to distance themselves from ruminative thoughts (reactive group). Then, an aversive emotional state is induced by an autobiographical recall of events which made the participants feel inadequate, bashful, and ashamed. Currently experienced shame as well as state rumination are assessed before and after the negative recall task.

Conditions

• Social Anxiety
• Depression

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
OTHER	Active Placebo labelled as antidepressant	Participants receive an active nasal spray that is in fact a placebo with a specific framing in regards to its affect-regulatory characteristics, respectively.

Timeline

• Start date: 2022-05-25
• Primary completion: 2022-07-31
• Completion: 2022-07-31
• First posted: 2022-05-13
• Last updated: 2023-06-23

Locations

1 site across 1 country: Germany