Early access
Sign in
Taking people in United StatesNo phase

Reward Processing and Exposure Therapy for Social Anxiety Disorder

Key facts

Who runs it
University of California, Los Angeles
Where
Los Angeles, United StatesSee the site
Trial code
Status
Recruiting
People taking part
94 people, planned
Started
26 Sept 2024
Expected to end
30 Apr 2029
Type of study
Interventional, 2 groupsOne group gets an existing treatment, for comparison.
Treatments tested
  • Positive Affect Treatment - Behavioral (PAT-B)
  • Relaxation Treatment
  • Exposure Therapy
Record updated
2 April 2026

Who can take part

Age
18 years to 60 years
Sex
Women and men
Healthy volunteers
Cannot take part

The registry criteria, word for word

Show all 14 criteriaShow less

Who can take part

  • Diagnosis of social anxiety disorder from the Structural Clinical Interview for DSM 5
  • Elevated fear of public speaking, defined as a score of >= 66 (+1SD from the mean of population norms on a scale of 17-85) on the Public Speaking Anxiety Scale (PSAS; Bartholomay, E. M., \& Houlihan, D. D. (2016). Public Speaking Anxiety Scale: Preliminary psychometric data and scale validation. Personality and individual differences, 94, 211-215), which is a self-report scale measuring anxiety of public speaking
  • Low reward processing, defined as a score of <56 (less than the population mean) on the Dimensional Anhedonia Rating Scale (DARS) (Rizvi, S. J., Quilty, L. C., Sproule, B. A., Cyriac, A., Bagby, R. M., \& Kennedy, S. H. (2015). Dimensional Anhedonia Rating Scale (DARS) [Database record]. APA PsycTests)
  • Medication-free or stabilized on psychotropic medications for a minimum standard length of time (1 month for benzodiazepines and beta blockers, 3 months for SRIs/SNRIs and heterocyclics)
  • Psychotherapy-free or stabilized on alternative psychotherapies other than cognitive or behavioral therapies that were not focused on their anxiety disorder for at least 6 months prior to study entry
  • Age 18-60
  • Fluent in English
  • To conduct MRI version of fear conditioning task, must have no MRI contraindications

Who cannot take part

  • Lifetime history of suicide attempts
  • History of bipolar disorder, psychosis, intellectual disability, or organic brain damage
  • Substance use disorder within the last 6 months
  • Major respiratory, cardiovascular, pulmonary, neurological, or muscular-skeletal diseases
  • Recent suicidal ideation with intent or plan - defined as suicidal ideation with intent or plan in the past year
  • Pregnant or planning to become pregnant for next 6 months

Check if you might fit

Answer for yourself. This is not a decision: only the study team can say whether you can take part.

  • Are you between 18 and 60 years old?

Where in United States

  • University of California, Los AngelesLos Angeles, United StatesContact: Tomislav D Zbozinek, PhDTaking people

About the trial

What the trial wants to find out

The investigators are conducting a clinical trial of therapy for public speaking anxiety. There are many eligibility criteria, but the main ones are that participants need to be socially anxious and have public speaking anxiety. In this clinical trial, all participants will do exposure therapy. Before doing exposure therapy in the study, though, participants will be randomized to do one of two treatments: i) a positive mood treatment, which is designed to increase how positive people feel, and ii) a relaxation treatment, which is designed to help people feel more relaxed. The investigators are doing this study to see whether doing the positive mood treatment or relaxation treatment first will affect how well exposure therapy works.

The 2 groups in the trial

  • Positive Affect Treatment - Behavioral (PAT-B)Treatment being tested

    Focused on improving reward processing and anhedonia using PAT-B. Expected to reduce negative affect and increase positive affect. Then, exposure therapy to reduce public speaking anxiety.

    Treatment: Positive Affect Treatment - Behavioral (PAT-B) and Exposure Therapy

  • Relaxation TreatmentExisting treatment, for comparison

    Focused on relaxation and mindfulness using Relaxation Treatment. Expected to reduce negative affect. Then, exposure therapy to reduce public speaking anxiety.

    Treatment: Relaxation Treatment and Exposure Therapy

Questions to ask the study team

  1. How often do I need to come in, and for how long each time?
  2. Are travel costs paid?
  3. Can I keep my own doctor?
  4. What happens if I want to stop?

Contact the study team: see the registry record → Contacts and Locations

Print a page for my doctor

Data and sources

Registry record
Listed on ClinicalTrials.gov.
Official title
Reward Processing and Exposure Therapy
Fit questions
Built from NCT06776991, who can take part
Record updated
2 April 2026