Not provided
Not provided
Not provided
Not provided
Not provided
Not provided
Not provided
Not provided
Not provided
Not provided
Not provided
Not provided
Not provided
Not provided
Not provided
Not provided
Not provided
Not provided
Attachment injuries are events occurring within couple relationships that involve betrayal or abandonment by a significant other during times of need (e.g., infidelity). They can be understood as relationship traumas, which can lead to debilitating symptoms consistent with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, and generalized anxiety for the injured partner. Research has demonstrated that the presence of an attachment injury represents a barrier to empirically effective couple's therapy. However, disrupting memory reconsolidation with the beta-blocker propranolol has been shown to alleviate PTSD symptoms by attenuating the salience of the emotional trauma memory, representing an interesting avenue for the treatment of adjustment disorders stemming from attachment injuries. Moreover, evidence suggests that a certain degree of mismatch, or an error between what is expected/predicted to occur and what actually occurs, must be present in order for a memory to destabilize and enter the reconsolidation phase following retrieval. Here, the investigators aim to extend the conditions under which reconsolidation therapy with propranolol can be used in a clinical setting, as well as assess whether incorporating mismatch enhances treatment effects. The investigators hypothesize that, compared to a wait-list control, 4-6 sessions of memory reactivation under propranolol will significantly reduce trauma-related and general anxio-depressive symptoms, associated with an attachment injury. Moreover, the investigators hypothesize that participants randomized to the mismatch group will improve significantly more than the standard treatment group on all variables of interest.
Not provided
Not provided
Not provided
Not provided
Not provided
| Label | Type | Description | Intervention Names |
|---|---|---|---|
| Propranolol pill + mismatch memory reactivation | Experimental | Prediction-error will be incorporated into each treatment sessions. |
|
| Propranolol pill + standard memory reactivation | Experimental |
| |
| Waitlist | No Intervention |
| Name | Type | Description | Arm Group Labels | Other Names |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Propranolol Pill | Drug | 1mg/kg of propranolol 60 minutes prior to memory reactivation |
|
| Measure | Description | Time Frame |
|---|---|---|
| Within-group difference: Wait-list vs. Treatment; Between-group difference: Mismatch vs. No Mismatch on Impact of Events Scale-Revised | Severity of Trauma and Stressor-related symptoms | Administered at baseline (Week 0), Post-Wait-list (Week 4), at each subsequent weekly visit, at the one-week post-treatment follow-up, and at the three-month follow up. |
| Measure | Description | Time Frame |
|---|---|---|
| Within-group difference: Wait-list vs. Treatment; Between-group difference: Mismatch vs. No Mismatch on Hopkins Symptom Checklist-25 | General Psychological Distress (Depression and Anxiety) | Administered at baseline (Week 0), Post-Wait-list (Week 4), at each subsequent weekly visit, at the one-week post-treatment follow-up, and at the three-month follow up. |
Not provided
Inclusion Criteria:
Exclusion Criteria:
Not provided
Not provided
Not provided
Not provided
Not provided
Not provided
| Facility | Status | City | State | ZIP | Country | Contacts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Douglas Mental Health University Institute | Montreal | Quebec | H4H1R3 | Canada |
| PubMed Identifier | Type | Citation | Retractions |
|---|---|---|---|
| 36031005 | Result | Lonergan M, Saumier D, Pigeon S, Etienne PE, Brunet A. Treatment of adjustment disorder stemming from romantic betrayal using memory reactivation under propranolol: A open-label interrupted time series trial. J Affect Disord. 2022 Nov 15;317:98-106. doi: 10.1016/j.jad.2022.08.082. Epub 2022 Aug 27. |
Not provided
Not provided
Not provided
Not provided
Not provided
Not provided
Not provided
Not provided
Experiment 1: Repeated measures open-label clinical trial with time-series analysis.
Experiment 2: Randomized clinical trial (mismatch vs. no mismatch) with within-group wait-list.
Not provided
Not provided
Randomization to 'mismatch group' or 'no-mismatch group' will be done prior to the first treatment session by a third party unrelated to the study, and blind to participant outcome. Participants will also be blind to which group they are randomized to. The randomization scheme will use the permuted-block method with a block size of four, stratified by gender (male and female) and event type (infidelity and other), and a group allocation probability of 50% (Fleiss, 1986).
|
| Within-group difference: Wait-list vs. Treatment; Between-group difference: Mismatch vs. No Mismatch on World Health Organization - Quality of Life BREF | Perceived Quality of Life in 4 Domains, Psychological, Physical, Environmental, Social | Administered at baseline (Week 0), Post-Wait-list (Week 4), at the one-week post-treatment follow-up, and at the three-month follow up. |
| ID | Term |
|---|---|
| D000275 | Adjustment Disorders |
| D013313 | Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic |
| D000068099 | Trauma and Stressor Related Disorders |
| ID | Term |
|---|---|
| D001523 | Mental Disorders |
| D040921 | Stress Disorders, Traumatic |
Not provided
Not provided
| ID | Term |
|---|---|
| D011433 | Propranolol |
| ID | Term |
|---|---|
| D050198 | Phenoxypropanolamines |
| D011412 | Propanolamines |
| D000605 | Amino Alcohols |
| D000438 | Alcohols |
| D009930 | Organic Chemicals |
| D020005 | Propanols |
| D000588 | Amines |
| D009281 | Naphthalenes |
| D011084 | Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons |
| D006841 | Hydrocarbons, Aromatic |
| D006844 | Hydrocarbons, Cyclic |
| D006838 | Hydrocarbons |
| D011083 | Polycyclic Compounds |
Not provided
Not provided