Attentional Bias Modification for Social Anxiety Disorder: What do Patients Think and Why does it Matter?
Open accessAbstract
Background: In the past decade, a great deal of research has examined the efficacy and mechanisms of attentional bias modification (ABM), a computerized cognitive training intervention for anxiety and other disorders. However, little research has examined how anxious patients perceive ABM, and it is unclear to what extent perceptions of ABM influence outcome. Aims: To examine patient perceptions of ABM across two studies, using a mixed methods approach. Method: In the first study, participants completed a traditional ABM program and received a hand-out with minimal information about the purpose of the task. In the second study, participants completed an adaptive ABM program and were provided with more extensive rationale and instructions for changing attentional biases. Results: A number of themes emerged from qualitative data related to perceived symptom changes and mechanisms of action, acceptability, early perceptions of the program, barriers/facilitators to engagement, and responses to adaptive features. Moreover, quantitative data suggested that patients’ perceptions of the program predicted symptom reduction as well as change in attentional bias. Conclusions: Our quantitative data suggest that it may be possible to quickly and inexpensively identify some patients who may benefit from current ABM programs, although our qualitative data suggest that ABM needs major modifications before it will be an acceptable and credible treatment more broadly. Although the current study was limited by sample size and design features of the parent trials from which these data originated, our findings may be useful for guiding hypotheses in future studies examining patient perceptions towards ABM.
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Only two qualitative studies to date have examined patients' subjective experience of CBM, focussing on social anxiety.
“To the best of our knowledge, only two qualitative studies to date have examined patients’ subjective experience of CBM, focussing on social anxiety [6, 17].”
From A qualitative study of the acceptability of cognitive bias modification for paranoia (CBM-pa) in patients with psychosis (2019) · cites this paper as [17]
Kuckertz et al. found that patients' initial perception of CBM-A predicted both anxiety reduction and the extent to which attention bias was modified.
“Kuckertz et al. [17] found that patients’ initial perception of CBM-A predicted both anxiety reduction and the extent to which attention bias was modified.”
From A qualitative study of the acceptability of cognitive bias modification for paranoia (CBM-pa) in patients with psychosis (2019) · cites this paper as [17]
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- Authors
- Kuckertz, J. M., Schofield, C. A., Clerkin, E. M., Primack, J., Boettcher, H., Weisberg, R. B., Amir, N., & Beard, C.
- Affiliations
- San Diego State University (US)
- Skidmore College (US)
- Miami University (US)
- Brown University (US)
- Boston University (US)
- Harvard University (US)
- ORCID
- Venue
- Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapy
- Publisher
- Cambridge University Press (CUP)
- Published
- 2018-05-06
- Volume
- 47
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 16-38
- ISSN
- 1352-4658 (ISSN-L)
- 1469-1833
- PMC
- PMC6219938
- OpenAlex
- W2800939005
- Cited by
- 30
- References
- 43
- Citations by year
- 2026: 3 · 2025: 3 · 2024: 7 · 2023: 2 · 2022: 3 · 2021: 6 · 2020: 2 · 2019: 3 · 2018: 1
- FWCI
- 3.93
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Locations
- Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapy (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (acceptedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- Funders
- Brown University
- National Institute of Mental Health (F32MH083330, F31MH107176, R34MH097820, R01MH106477)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Anxiety, Depression, Psychometrics, Treatment, Cognitive Processes
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Applied Psychology › Digital Mental Health Interventions
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Psychological Treatments and Assessments
- Keywords
- attentional bias modification, social anxiety disorder, patient perspectives, acceptability, treatment engagement, adaptive training, computerized cognitive training, treatment credibility, mechanism of action
- MeSH terms
- Attentional Bias, Phobia, Social, Adolescent, Adult, Aged, Anxiety, Attention, Female, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Patients, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Patient Satisfaction, Young Adult
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