NCT07523360

A Digital Cognitive Intervention for Intrusive Memories After Trauma

A Novel Digital Cognitive Intervention Targeting Intrusive Memories Among Trauma-Exposed Individuals: A Randomised Clinical Trial

• Status: Not Yet Recruiting
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 123 (estimated)
• Sponsor: Zhu Zijian · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 18 Years – 50 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Not accepted

Summary

Intrusive traumatic memories frequently trigger severe distress and psychological disorders like PTSD. Traditional therapies require explicit trauma recall, which often causes severe patient distress and leads to treatment avoidance. To address this, our study introduces a novel, less aversive intervention combining unconscious visual processing with bilateral eye movement to mitigate these intrusive memories. Utilizing a randomized, three-arm design (comparing standardized trauma-related images, patient-provided images, and neutral images, all paired with bilateral eye movements), we plan to recruit participants who have experienced severe trauma and report ≥ 5 intrusive memories weekly, targeting a final sample of 40 patients per arm. The primary outcome is the frequency of intrusive memories. Secondary and additional outcomes include PTSD severity (CAPS-5, PCL-5, IES), depression, anxiety, borderline symptoms, functional improvements, subjective intervention distress, and dropout rates.

Detailed description

This study will be conducted on an online platform, which will be used for data collection, task management, and recording of experimental results.

Conditions

• Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
• Intrusive Memories of Traumatic Event(s)

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
BEHAVIORAL	Pre-selected Trauma-related Cue Images with Eye Movement	After the baseline diary period, participants perform a continuous bilateral eye-movement task while being concurrently exposed to subliminally presented, masked pre-selected trauma-related cue images. This condition uses 8 pre-selected trauma-related cue images chosen by the research team to increase category-level cue coverage without requiring participants to provide their own trauma-related material.
BEHAVIORAL	Patient-provided Trauma-related Cue Images with Eye Movement	After the baseline diary period, participants provide 4 personalized trauma-related cue images. Participants then perform a continuous bilateral eye-movement task while being concurrently exposed to subliminally presented, masked personalized trauma-related cue images provided by themselves. This condition serves as a high-specificity anchor condition while reducing participant burden associated with providing larger numbers of trauma-related images.
BEHAVIORAL	Neutral Images with Eye Movement	After the baseline diary period, participants perform the same continuous bilateral eye-movement task while being concurrently exposed to subliminally presented, masked pre-selected neutral images unrelated to trauma. This condition uses 8 neutral images and serves as an active control for the general effects of visual stimulation and eye movements while minimizing trauma-related cue activation.

Timeline

• Start date: 2026-04-10
• Primary completion: 2028-02-10
• Completion: 2028-05-10
• First posted: 2026-04-13
• Last updated: 2026-04-13