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Symposia

Program / Treatment Design

Development and evaluation of scalable web-based interventions targeting malleable transdiagnostic risk factors

3 - (Sym 72) A Preliminary Evaluation of a Computerized Exposure-based Treatment for Perfectionism

Saturday, November 19, 2022

12:00 PM – 1:30 PM EST

Location: Broadhurst/Belasco, 5th Floor

Keywords: Technology / Mobile Health, Treatment, Transdiagnostic
Recommended Readings: Mojtabai, R., Olfson, M., Sampson, N. A., Jin, R., Druss, B., Wang, P. S., ... & Kessler, R. C. (2011). Barriers to mental health treatment: results from the National Comorbidity Survey Replication. Psychological medicine, 41(8), 1751-1761.
Collins, K. A., Westra, H. A., Dozois, D. J., & Burns, D. D. (2004). Gaps in accessing treatment for anxiety and depression: challenges for the delivery of care. Clinical psychology review, 24(5), 583-616.
Dear, B. F., Staples, L. G., Terides, M. D., Karin, E., Zou, J., Johnston, L., ... & Titov, N. (2015). Transdiagnostic versus disorder-specific and clinician-guided versus self-guided internet-delivered treatment for generalized anxiety disorder and comorbid disorders: a randomized controlled trial. Journal of anxiety disorders, 36, 63-77.

Presenter(s)

SR

Sarah Redden, M.S.

Florida State University
Tallahassee, Florida

Co-author(s)

JC

Jesse R. Cougle, Ph.D.

Professor
Florida State University
Tallahassee, Florida

Background: Perfectionism has important implications for self-worth, personal standards, and psychopathology. The aim of this study was to test the efficacy of a novel two-week, computerized, exposure-based treatment for perfectionism (ETP).

Methods: Seventy-one university students with elevated perfectionism were randomized to either the ETP group (n = 36) or the waitlist (WL) control group (n = 35). The ETP group was asked to complete the intervention at home, every three days for two weeks for a total of five treatment sessions. The tasks in the ETP condition were engineered to have participants repeatedly make mistakes and consisted of five 25-min sessions. All participants returned two weeks after the baseline visit for a post-treatment assessment.

Results: Compared to WL, ETP led to lower overall perfectionism (β = -.382, t = -5.026, p < .001, R² △= .146), concern over mistakes (β = -.463, t = -4.882, p < .001, R² △= .212), depressive symptoms (β = -.299, t = -3.358, p = .001, R² △= .085), eating disorder symptoms (β = -.148, t = -2.016, p = .048, R² △= .022), social anxiety symptoms (β = -.180, t = -2.865, p = .006, R² △= .033), and error sensitivity (β = -.299, t = -3.353, p = .001, R² △= .089) at post-treatment. No effects of treatment were found on obsessive-compulsive symptoms.

Conclusions: This study provided preliminary evidence for a novel online intervention for perfectionism. Limitations and directions for future research will be discussed.