Multi-session online interpretation bias training for anxiety in a community sample

Abstract

The present study assessed target engagement, preliminary efficacy, and feasibility as primary outcomes of a free multi-session online cognitive bias modification of interpretation (CBM-I) intervention for anxiety in a large community sample. High trait anxious participants (N = 807) were randomly assigned to a CBM-I condition: 1) Positive training (90% positive-10% negative); 2) 50% positive-50% negative training; or 3) no-training control. Further, half of each CBM-I condition was randomized to either an anxious imagery prime or a neutral imagery prime. Due to attrition, results from six out of eight sessions were analyzed using structural equation modeling of latent growth curves. Results for the intent-to-treat sample indicate that for target engagement, consistent with predictions, decreases in negative interpretations over time were significantly greater among those receiving positive CBM-I training compared to no-training or 50-50 training, and vice-versa for increases in positive interpretations. For intervention efficacy, the decrease in anxiety symptoms over time was significantly greater among those receiving positive CBM-I training compared to no-training. Interaction effects with imagery prime were more variable with a general pattern of stronger results for those completing the anxious imagery prime. Findings indicate that online CBM-I positive training is feasible and shows some promising results, although attrition rates were very high for later training sessions.

Cite this work

No public copy is stored for this record, so only the metadata is cited.

Stored only when both papers are in the corpus — 41 citations exist upstream.

Papers that cite the same references — the relational fallback while embeddings are still backfilling.