Social Support and Enhanced Fear Extinction

NCT ID: NCT04565041

Last Updated: 2025-10-22

Basic Information

• Recruitment Status: RECRUITING
• Clinical Phase: NA
• Total Enrollment: 100 participants
• Study Classification: INTERVENTIONAL
• Study Start Date: 2022-02-01
• Study Completion Date: 2026-01-31

Brief Summary

University of California, Los Angeles researchers will recruit healthy participants and anxious participants (those diagnosed with social anxiety disorder) age 18-55 years old to participate in a study examining whether the ability of social support figure reminders to enhance the extinction of fear in healthy participants extends to those with anxiety disorders.

After being recruited from the UCLA community (healthy participants, n = 50) or referred by treatment providers at the Anxiety and Depression Research Center at UCLA (anxious participants, n = 50) and undergoing a telephone screening and in-person screening, 100 participants will be enrolled in the study, with an expected recruited 150 to reach this number. During the experiment, all participants will undergo the same procedures: undergoing a fear extinction procedure in which threatening cues--cues that predict electric shock--will be paired with either an image of a social support figure (provided by participants) or an image of a smiling stranger. These pairings will be presented repeatedly in the absence of shock in order for fear extinction to occur. Participants will return for a follow-up test to determine if fear extinction was successful.

Conditions

Fear; Anxiety

Study Design

• Allocation Method: NA
• Intervention Model: SINGLE_GROUP
• Primary Study Purpose: BASIC_SCIENCE
• Blinding Strategy: NONE

Study Groups

Social Support

Group Type: EXPERIMENTAL

Social Support

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Presence of an image of a social support figure (provided by participant) during a fear extinction procedure

Interventions

Social Support

Presence of an image of a social support figure (provided by participant) during a fear extinction procedure

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Eligibility Criteria

Inclusion Criteria

• healthy adults 18 to 55
• fluent in English
• no history of mental illness (healthy participants: including anxiety, depression, phobia, or any other mental health related disorder diagnosed by a mental health professional)
• diagnosis of social anxiety disorder (anxious participants: allowed co-morbid disorders include depression, other anxiety disorders, and PTSD)

Exclusion Criteria

• pregnant or planning to become pregnant during the experiment period
• presence of chronic mental illness (healthy participants: as determined by the report of a past diagnosis of mental illness by a physician or psychologist and/or the prescription of medication related to mental health disorder; including anxiety, depression, phobia, or any other diagnosed psychological disorder)
• presence of non-allowed co-morbid disorders (anxious participants: including, bipolar disorder, psychosis, substance use disorder, neurological disorder, and/or obsessive-compulsive disorder)
• current and regular use of prescription medications related to mental health disorders

• Minimum Eligible Age: 18 Years
• Maximum Eligible Age: 55 Years
• Eligible Sex: ALL
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes

Sponsors

National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)

NIH

Sponsor Role: collaborator

University of California, Los Angeles

OTHER

Sponsor Role: lead

Responsible Party

Naomi Eisenberger

Professor

Responsibility Role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

Locations

UCLA Department of Psychology

Los Angeles, California, United States

Site Status: RECRUITING

Countries

United States

Central Contacts

Erica Hornstein, PhD

Role: CONTACT

ericahornstien@ucla.edu

9175664470

Naomi Eisenberger, PhD

Role: CONTACT

Other Identifiers

R21MH125274

Identifier Type: NIH

Identifier Source: secondary_id

View Link

SSE

Identifier Type: -

Identifier Source: org_study_id