Investigating freezing patterns in response to aversive pictures in 2 specific clinical populations: patients with PTSD and patients with conversion disorder. This will provide new information about the role of freezing in the onset and maintenance…
ID
Source
Brief title
Condition
- Anxiety disorders and symptoms
Synonym
Research involving
Sponsors and support
Intervention
Outcome measures
Primary outcome
The intervention consists of a passive picture viewing taak. Outcome measures
will be: body sway, heart rate, basal and reactive hormone levels (cortisol and
testosteron), subjective anxiety and subjective immobility.
Secondary outcome
N/A
Background summary
Behavioural Gedragsinhibition and freezing are important reactions to danger
and seem to play a role in the aetiology of trauma-related disorders like PTSD
and conversion disorder. However, resaearch in this area concerns animal
studies mostly and research in humans is scarce. Recently, new possibilities
are available by using a stabilometric platform. Previous studies reveal
individual differences in human freezing-like responses using such a platform
in healthy participants. These differences were moderated by anxiety and prior
traumatisation. It is of great importance to also investigate freezing in
trauma-related clinical populations (PTSD and conversion disorder).
Study objective
Investigating freezing patterns in response to aversive pictures in 2 specific
clinical populations: patients with PTSD and patients with conversion disorder.
This will provide new information about the role of freezing in the onset and
maintenance of these disorders. The primary goal is therefore a scientific one,
but this information may later be used to improve treatment of these disorders.
Study design
An experiment with a within-subjects (aversive, positive and neutral stimuli)
and between-subjects (PTSD, conversion and healthy controls) design will be
executed in order to test acute responses to emotional stimuli.
Study burden and risks
The main burdan for the participants is the use of aversive stimuli (for
example, pictures of dead bodies and angry faces). Participants may also
experience tiredness (the experiment will take about 1 hour). The pictures are
selected from an international validated set, that is oftenly used in
international research on healthy and clinical populations (like for example
PTSD patients).
wassenaarseweg 52
2300 RB, Leiden
NL
wassenaarseweg 52
2300 RB, Leiden
NL
Listed location countries
Age
Inclusion criteria
all participants: good or corrected vision, Dutch speeking
patients: meeting DSM-IV criteria for PTSD or conversion disorder
Exclusion criteria
all participants: colour blindness, substance or alcohol abuse
healthy controls: treatment for psychiatric disorders
Design
Recruitment
Followed up by the following (possibly more current) registration
No registrations found.
Other (possibly less up-to-date) registrations in this register
No registrations found.
In other registers
| Register | ID |
|---|---|
| CCMO | NL30608.058.10 |