Journal Article

Attentional bias modification training for insomnia: A double-blind placebo controlled randomized trial

Brendel, Ruben S., Salemink, Elske, Yasiney, Samya L., Boffo, Marilisa, Lancee, Jaap, Clarke, Patrick J. F.

2017

Overview

Attentional bias toward sleep-related information is believed to play a key role in insomnia. If attentional bias is indeed of importance, changing this bias should then in turn have effects on insomnia complaints. In this double-blind placebo controlled randomized trial we investigated the efficacy of attentional bias modification training in the treatment of insomnia. We administered baseline, post-test, and one-week follow-up measurements of insomnia severity, sleep-related worry, depression, and anxiety. Participants meeting DSM-5 criteria for insomnia were randomized into an attentional bias training group (n = 67) or a placebo training group (n = 70). Both groups received eight training sessions over the course of two weeks. All participants kept a sleep diary for four consecutive weeks (one week before until one week after the training sessions). There was no additional benefit for the attentional bias training over the placebo training on sleep-related indices/outcome measures. The absence of the effect may be explained by the fact that there was neither attentional bias at baseline nor any reduction in the bias after the training. Either way, this study gives no support for attentional bias modification training as a stand-alone intervention for ameliorating insomnia complaints.

• Publisher: Public Library of Science,Public Library of Science (PLoS)
• Subject: Accessibility / Adhesion / Adult / Anxiety / Anxiety - diagnosis / Anxiety - physiopathology / Anxiety - therapy / Arousal / Attention / Attentional Bias / Behavior Therapy - methods / Bias / Biology and Life Sciences / Browning / Burns / Cardiovascular diseases / Clients / Clinical trials / Cognitive ability / Computer programs / Cues / Daytime / Depression - diagnosis / Depression - physiopathology / Depression - therapy / Disorders / Distortion / Double-Blind Method / Double-blind studies / Emotions / Environmental monitoring / Eye / Eye movements / Female / Fuels / Heart diseases / Human behavior / Humans / Information processing / Insomnia / Internet / Male / Medicine and Health Sciences / Mental depression / Meta-analysis / Middle Aged / Motivation / Physical Sciences / Psychiatry / Psychology / Psychopathology / Reliability / Remission / Research and Analysis Methods / Severity of Illness Index / Sleep / Sleep disorders / Sleep Initiation and Maintenance Disorders - diagnosis / Sleep Initiation and Maintenance Disorders - physiopathology / Sleep Initiation and Maintenance Disorders - therapy / Social Sciences / Software / Speech / Speech perception / Stimuli / Stress concentration / Studies / Training / Treatment Failure / Visual perception / Visual task performance