Anxiety Lowering and Deprescribing Through Emotion Regulation

NCT ID: NCT06359314

Last Updated: 2025-12-16

Study Results

Results available

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Basic Information

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Recruitment Status

COMPLETED

Clinical Phase

NA

Total Enrollment

33 participants

Study Classification

INTERVENTIONAL

Study Start Date

2024-05-16

Study Completion Date

2024-09-10

Brief Summary

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The goal of this clinical trial is to test ALDER (Anxiety Lowering and Deprescribing through Emotion Regulation), an online self-guided positive emotion intervention, in patients over the age of 65 who are candidates for benzodiazepine receptor agonist (BZRA, commonly called benzos, or z-drugs) deprescribing. The main questions it aims to answer are:

* Is ALDER relevant to and satisfactory for older adult BZRA users?
* Does ALDER help to increase positive emotions and decrease anxiety, trouble sleeping, and use of BZRA medications?

Participants will complete the 5-week online self-guided ALDER intervention as well as two survey assessments, one before the intervention and one after.

Detailed Description

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ALDER (Anxiety Lowering and Deprescribing through Emotion Regulation) is a pilot trial of an online positive emotion intervention for adults age 65 and over who are candidates for benzodiazepine receptor agonist (BZRA) deprescribing. The ALDER intervention is 5 weeks long and involves weekly self-guided positive emotion skill lessons and daily skill practice exercises, both housed on the ALDER website.

Up to n=40 patients over the age of 65 will be recruited from Northwestern Medicine Primary Care clinics. To participate, patients must have (1) a BZRA prescription from Northwestern Medicine Primary Care within the past year, (2) at least 1 NM Primary Care visit in the past year, and (3) take a BZRA at least twice a week. Participants will complete survey assessments via REDCap before and after they go through the ALDER intervention. All study activities will take place online.

Feasibility, acceptability, and adoption of the ALDER program will be assessed using enrollment and retention rates, website user data, and measures of relevance and satisfaction in the post-intervention assessment. Patient reported outcomes such as anxiety, sleep and positive affect will be measured both pre- and post-intervention and rate of BZRA usage will be extracted from participant medical records.

Conditions

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Benzodiazepine Dependence Anxiety Disorders Sleep Disturbance

Study Design

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Allocation Method

NA

Intervention Model

SINGLE_GROUP

Primary Study Purpose

SUPPORTIVE_CARE

Blinding Strategy

NONE

Study Groups

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Intervention

Participants will go through a 5-week online self-guided positive emotion skills course.

Group Type EXPERIMENTAL

ALDER

Intervention Type BEHAVIORAL

The ALDER skills are delivered over approximately 5 weeks. A week consists of learning at least one skill and then applying that skill(s) in daily home practice throughout the week. Skill lessons and daily home practice exercises are housed on the ALDER website. Participants have the option to share their home practice responses with fellow participants by posting them to the discussion board, where they can like and comment on each other's posts.

Interventions

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ALDER

The ALDER skills are delivered over approximately 5 weeks. A week consists of learning at least one skill and then applying that skill(s) in daily home practice throughout the week. Skill lessons and daily home practice exercises are housed on the ALDER website. Participants have the option to share their home practice responses with fellow participants by posting them to the discussion board, where they can like and comment on each other's posts.

Intervention Type BEHAVIORAL

Eligibility Criteria

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Inclusion Criteria

* Age 65 and over.
* ≥1 NM Internal Medicine clinic visit within the past year.
* BZRA prescribed by NM primary care within the past year.
* Takes BZRA at least twice a week.
* Daily access to internet-connected device.
* Ability to read and speak English.

Exclusion Criteria

* Dementia, seizure, or REM sleep disorder diagnosis.
* In hospice care.
* No daily internet access.
* Cannot speak and read English.
Minimum Eligible Age

65 Years

Eligible Sex

ALL

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Sponsors

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Northwestern University

OTHER

Sponsor Role lead

Responsible Party

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Elizabeth Addington

Associate Professor

Responsibility Role PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

Principal Investigators

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Elizabeth Addington, PhD

Role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

Northwestern University

Locations

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Northwestern Medicine

Chicago, Illinois, United States

Site Status

Countries

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United States

Provided Documents

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Document Type: Study Protocol and Statistical Analysis Plan

View Document

Other Identifiers

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STU00219362

Identifier Type: -

Identifier Source: org_study_id