Testing if Reductions in Negative Affect Yield Decreased Emotional Eating Symptoms

NCT ID: NCT03040076

Last Updated: 2018-06-26

Basic Information

• Recruitment Status: TERMINATED
• Clinical Phase: NA
• Total Enrollment: 28 participants
• Study Classification: INTERVENTIONAL
• Study Start Date: 2017-03-28
• Study Completion Date: 2017-05-03

Brief Summary

The purpose of this study to test a computerized treatment designed to help people with high levels of emotional eating, which is when people eat to cope with negative emotions and/or stressful situations. The investigators are interested in comparing two different ways of coping with negative emotions, relaxation training or training in how to think differently about such situations. Additionally, the researchers' study seeks to understand more about the psychological factors that may contribute to someone having difficulty with emotional eating.

Detailed Description

Emotional eating, or eating as a mechanism for coping with negative affect, is present across a spectrum of eating disorders and is associated with poor health outcomes, namely obesity. Research suggests that individuals with emotional eating experience urges to eat in response to multiple negative emotions, including anxiety, depression, and anger. While emotional eating is related to binge eating, it can be examined in a more dimensional fashion because it is not associated with a specific size criterion or a requirement of loss of control over eating. As such, emotional eating is a useful analog through which to understand mechanisms of binge eating and test the preliminary efficacy of treatment interventions. Interventions that target mechanisms of regulating negative affect may reduce both negative affect and emotional eating, increasing their transdiagnostic value. Research suggests that a large gap exists between the prevalence of psychopathology and access to psychological treatment, and this gap extends to individuals with eating disorders. A potential solution to these challenges is the use of computerized methodologies that may be easier to disseminate, allow for a gradient of treatment intensity, and do not rely upon training treatment providers. Computer-administered CBM interventions address the need for more easily disseminated treatments. CBM interventions are based in research suggesting that negative interpretation biases cause negative emotionality and subsequent symptom expression. Negative interpretation biases are the tendency to draw threatening conclusions about ambiguous information. Thus, CBM paradigms train people to make neutral or positive attributions about situations they would typically view through the lens of their negative biases. CBM interventions have been tested across a range of psychopathology, including anxiety disorders, depression, and anger, and using a variety of different bias modification techniques. Two recent CBM studies have been tested within the field of eating disorders. Although results were promising, both studies were marked by methodological limitations and neither addressed emotional eating specifically. The purpose of the present study is to test a CBM intervention designed to help individuals with elevated emotional eating improve their ability to regulate negative affect. In doing so, the investigators will determine if modifying the interpretation of ambiguous situations that would typically result in negative affect can reduce negative affect in individuals with high emotional eating. The researchers will in turn determine if those individuals have decreased food consumption under conditions that would otherwise elicit negative emotions. This project extends initial research on CBMs in eating disorders, as well as research suggesting that basic emotion regulation training can decrease emotional eating.

Conditions

Eating Disorder Symptom; Emotional Maladjustment; Negative Thoughts

Study Design

• Allocation Method: RANDOMIZED
• Intervention Model: PARALLEL
• Primary Study Purpose: TREATMENT
• Blinding Strategy: SINGLE

Study Groups

Cognitive Bias Treatment

Intervention condition

Group Type: EXPERIMENTAL

Cognitive Bias Treatment

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Two computerized tasks will be administered during four intervention sessions. During the first task, the Word Sentence Association Paradigm, participants see a threat or benign word and then an ambiguous sentence. Participants press one if they believe the word and sentence are related and two if they believe the word and sentence are not related. Participants are given feedback that they responded correctly if they state that a benign word is related to the sentence or they state that a threat word is not related to the sentence. The second task is the Ambiguous Scenarios Task. In each trial, an ambiguous scenario, ending in a benign word, appears on the screen. After the scenario is presented, participants respond to a comprehension question and are given feedback on their performance.

Relaxation Condition

Active control condition

Group Type: ACTIVE_COMPARATOR

Relaxation Condition

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Participants assigned to the active control group will complete four sessions of progressive muscle relaxation training. Two alternating relaxation scripts will be used. The scripts will be presented as Youtube videos with a blank black screen and will instruct participants to keep their eyes closed for the duration of the training. Participants will access the videos through Qualtrics to ensure that data can be gathered about their compliance. The relaxation scripts used in the present study will be modified versions of those currently being tested by other researchers utilizing cognitive bias modification paradigms. The relaxation training sessions will be matched to the length of the treatment condition and therefore will last approximately 30 minutes.

Interventions

Cognitive Bias Treatment

Two computerized tasks will be administered during four intervention sessions. During the first task, the Word Sentence Association Paradigm, participants see a threat or benign word and then an ambiguous sentence. Participants press one if they believe the word and sentence are related and two if they believe the word and sentence are not related. Participants are given feedback that they responded correctly if they state that a benign word is related to the sentence or they state that a threat word is not related to the sentence. The second task is the Ambiguous Scenarios Task. In each trial, an ambiguous scenario, ending in a benign word, appears on the screen. After the scenario is presented, participants respond to a comprehension question and are given feedback on their performance.

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Relaxation Condition

Participants assigned to the active control group will complete four sessions of progressive muscle relaxation training. Two alternating relaxation scripts will be used. The scripts will be presented as Youtube videos with a blank black screen and will instruct participants to keep their eyes closed for the duration of the training. Participants will access the videos through Qualtrics to ensure that data can be gathered about their compliance. The relaxation scripts used in the present study will be modified versions of those currently being tested by other researchers utilizing cognitive bias modification paradigms. The relaxation training sessions will be matched to the length of the treatment condition and therefore will last approximately 30 minutes.

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Eligibility Criteria

Inclusion Criteria

• Female between the ages of 18 and 45 years of age
• An emotional eating score more than one SD above the mean (>2.9) on the Dutch Eating Behavior Questionnaire (DEBQ) emotional eating scale (van Strien, Frijters, Bergers, & Defares, 1986).
• Regular computer and internet access
• Rate liking of vanilla frozen yogurt as a 6 or higher on a 10 point scale.

Exclusion Criteria

• Body mass index (BMI; kg/m2) less than 18.5 (World Health Organization, 2000), given known cognitive impairments that can result from being underweight (Fowler et al., 2006).
• Current psychotic, manic, or substance use disorders, as these may interfere with their ability to cognitively engage in the intervention.
• Food allergies that would prevent consumption of vanilla frozen yogurt.

• Minimum Eligible Age: 18 Years
• Maximum Eligible Age: 45 Years
• Eligible Sex: FEMALE
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No

Sponsors

Florida State University

OTHER

Sponsor Role: lead

Responsible Party

Responsibility Role: SPONSOR

Principal Investigators

Pamela K Keel, Ph.D.

Role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

Department of Psychology, Florida State University

Locations

Eating Behaviors Research Clinic, Department of Psychology, Florida State University

Tallahassee, Florida, United States

Countries

United States

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Other Identifiers

2016.19855

Identifier Type: -

Identifier Source: org_study_id