Anxiety clinical trials in Boston

Patients who undergo cardiothoracic surgery often experience pain and anxiety around the time of surgery. Currently, treatments for pain and anxiety around the time of surgery include opioids and benzodiazepines, which can have severe side effects and can be ineffective. Interventions combining virtual reality with olfactory stimuli are a promising alternative to opioids and benzodiazepines in the treatment of pain and anxiety around the time of surgery. The aim of this study is to evaluate the feasibility of a virtual reality and olfactory stimuli multimodal intervention in patients undergoing cardiothoracic surgery. In addition, the investigators will evaluate the preliminary effects of the VR/OS intervention on patient pain and anxiety before and after cardiothoracic surgery. Patients who meet study inclusion criteria and are undergoing cardiothoracic surgery may participate in this study. Patients have an equal being assigned to undergo the virtual reality and olfactory stimuli intervention or continue getting usual medical care with their doctor. If the patient is assigned to receive the virtual reality and olfactory stimuli intervention, the first therapy session will take place approximately two to four weeks before surgery. This will involve wearing a virtual reality headset and scented necklace for approximately 10 minutes. The second session will occur 90 minutes before the surgery. Additionally, for each day the patient recovers in the hospital after surgery, the patient will receive one session in the afternoon. During the patient's in-hospital recovery at night, they will receive lavender scented therapy.

This study is evaluating On-Trac (Online Training After Cancer), an online educational intervention to teach adult cancer survivors strategies to address anxiety based on Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT) and Acceptance Commitment Therapy (ACT) The name of the study intervention is Online Training After Cancer (On-Trac)

The goal of this clinical trial is to learn whether a journaling intervention can reduce stress and anxiety in parents of children with urogenital conditions (such as differences of sex development and hypospadias). The main questions it aims to answer are: * Does guided journaling help to reduce anxiety levels in parents of children with urogenital conditions? * What are parents' perspectives on group-based writing interventions for future support programs? Participants will: * Complete a short anxiety questionnaire (the General Anxiety Disorder-7 scale) at the beginning of the study * Receive a physical journal with 5 writing prompts designed to help process emotions related to their child's condition * Complete 5 journal entries over several weeks, writing about their experiences and feelings * Complete the same anxiety questionnaire again after finishing the journal entries * Participate in a 45-minute interview to discuss how the journaling affected their stress levels and gather feedback on potential group-based writing programs

Sexual minority stressors (e.g., sexual minority identity-based discrimination) contribute to greater risk for and severity of depression, anxiety, substance use disorders and suicide among sexual minority Veterans. However, no brief, scalable, one-on-one interventions targeting sexual minority stressor-related distress are available in Veterans Affairs (VA) for sexual minority Veterans. The proposed research will examine the feasibility, acceptability, and preliminary effectiveness of a brief, 3-session expressive writing intervention to target distress related to sexual minority stressor exposure among sexual minority Veterans. The results of this work will advance knowledge about a promising brief and easy to implement intervention focused on reducing depressive and anxiety symptoms among sexual minority Veterans. This proposal aligns with VA's and CSR\&D's commitment to providing equitable services to sexual minority Veterans and the aim of reducing health disparities among underserved Veteran groups.

The goal of this randomized trial is to investigate if using virtual reality (VR) glasses for patients who require non-emergent oral surgery procedures under intravenous (IV) sedation improves their overall experience compared to using standard of care safety glasses. This study has two primary objectives. 1. To evaluate if VR glasses can improve patient tolerance during IV access, sedation induction, and the surgical procedure. 2. To investigate whether the use of VR glasses reduces the amount of sedation required for induction and throughout the oral surgery procedure. 80 subjects will be randomly assigned 1:1 to either wear VR glasses playing a relaxing video and audio or VR glasses that will only serve as eye protection (control group).

Doulas are trained individuals who offer informational, emotional, and physical support to their pregnant, birthing, and postpartum clients. The goal of this clinical trial is to learn if a new intervention (called "Doula Link") is feasible to implement and acceptable to both doulas and their clients. The main questions it aims to answer are: * Is Doula Link feasible to implement and acceptable to doulas and their clients? * What are the preliminary differences in depression and anxiety between individuals working with doulas who received Doula Link compared to those who did not receive Doula Link? Researchers will compare "Doula Link" to usual doula practice to see if Doula Link is feasible and has potential to improve mental health outcomes in postpartum individuals. Doulas will be randomly assigned to either receive "Doula Link" or continue with their practice as usual. Participating doulas assigned to Doula Link will receive training mental health and implementing an intervention called "Our Babies and Us"; receive access to a toolkit; receive access to perinatal psychiatrists and referral specialists for consultations; receive access to a support group All participating doulas will be invited to complete surveys about their experience with Doula Link (if assigned to that group) and their experience providing care for their clients. All participating clients (pregnant and postpartum individuals) will be invited to complete surveys about their experiences with their doulas, their own mental health, and their experiences with the health system.

Anxiety-, obsessive-compulsive and trauma- and stressor-related disorders reflect a significant public health problem. This study is designed to evaluate the predictive power of a novel biomarker based on a CO2 challenge, thus addressing the central question "can this easy-to-administer assay aid clinicians in deciding whether or not to initiate exposure-based therapy?"

Participants will receive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) at a random location in the left prefrontal cortex, excluding sites that are potentially unsafe. Extensive behavioral testing will be conducted to determine which behaviors are modulated by stimulating which circuits.

TRIAGE-Psych is a survey study designed to assess potential participants' eligibility to screen for industry-sponsored psychiatry clinical trials.

There are few treatment options available for patients once they have failed standard psychopharmacological therapy for generalized anxiety disorder. Existing brain stimulation methods such as rTMS fail to target deep brain structures associated with anxiety disorders; structures such as the amygdala. In this double-blind sham-controlled clinical trial, the investigators propose to establish baseline severity of anxiety in 48 patients, then deliver eight treatments over four sessions of focused ultrasound stimulation to the amygdala. Anxiety severity will be assessed using standard psychometric scales after each session, and at follow-ups.

The investigators are doing this research to test whether parents of children ages 2-7 can better manage their child's anxiety by completing a brief, online, self-guided parent education program. One way to provide anxiety management skills to more children, and to potentially prevent worsening outcomes, is to offer online and self-guided educational programs that parents can complete without a clinician. This randomized trial will evaluate the effects of two brief, online, self-guided parent education programs designed to improve parents' understanding of anxiety and teach parents way to help their children cope with anxiety. Parents will be randomly assigned to one of the three programs. The main aim of the study is to examine whether the parent programs, compared to an educational control reduce parental accommodation of anxiety across a 1-, 4-, and 8-month follow-up period. As a secondary aim, the investigators will explore whether the parent programs reduce children's anxiety symptoms over the 8-month follow-up period. Results will inform the development of a scalable, low-cost model for promoting access to evidence-based treatment to young children.

The goal of the REVEAL PTSD study is to test how well the Senseye DT works as a diagnostic test for Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) in adults 18 and older who are experiencing one or more symptoms that might be related to PTSD. The Senseye DT is software as a medical device (SaMD) and is an iPhone app that administers a series of simple tasks on the phone while recording video during the tasks through the front-facing camera. The videos are analyzed by a an Artificial Intelligence (AI) algorithm to identify physiologic signals that might be indicative of PTSD. Data collected in this study will be used to train and tune the AI algorithm, then test it for accuracy. The main questions this study aims to answer are: 1. How accurate is the Senseye DT in detecting PTSD compared to structured clinical interviews, the current clinical standard for diagnostic testing? 2. How accurately does the Senseye DT predict PTSD severity? 3. How fast is the Senseye DT to use compared to structured clinical interviews? Participants will attend a virtual screening visit via video call to determine eligibility and consent to participate. Once enrolled, participants will attend 2 or 3 additional study visits: * Visit 1: A virtual visit where standard mental health assessments will be given by clinical raters trained in mental health and administering these structured clinical interviews. These assessments include the Structured Interview Guide for the Montgomery-Asburg Depression Rating Scale (SIGMA), the Structured Interview Guide for the Hamilton Anxiety Scale (SIGH-A), and the MINI International Neurodiagnostic Interview. The Clinician-Administered PTSD Scale for DSM-5 Revised Version (CAPS-5-R) may also be conducted, if randomly selected. * Visit 2: A visit to use the Senseye DT. For participants near one of the study's physical site locations, this visit will be done in person at the site. For all others, this visit will be conducted virtually. * Visit 3: For participants not randomly selected to have the CAPS-5-R administered at Visit 1, a third and final visit will be scheduled for this assessment. This visit will be conducted virtually. The total expected participation time for enrolled participants is 6-7 hours over the course of 2-3 weeks.

Aerobic exercise has emerged as an effective treatment to reduce sport-related concussion symptom severity, yet existing work lacks rigor regarding the precise exercise volume and intensity required to elicit therapeutic effects, how exercise can alter concussion-related pathophysiology, and whether exercise can prevent the development of secondary sequelae. Our objective is to examine if a high dose exercise program (higher volume than currently prescribed at an individualized, safe intensity level) initiated within 14 days of concussion results in faster symptom resolution, altered physiological function, or reduced secondary sequalae. Findings from this research will lead to more rigorous and precise rehabilitation guidelines and improved understanding about how exercise affects neurophysiological function among adolescents with concussion.

This is a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled crossover pilot study of single-dose intranasal oxytocin (6 IU and 24 IU) vs. placebo in adult men and women (aged 18 years and above) with arginine-vasopressin deficiency to evaluate the effect of oxytocin on anxiety, depression, and socioemotional functioning (Part A), with an optional randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled 2-week repeated dose substudy of intranasal oxytocin 6 IU or placebo (Part B). Following a screening visit to determine eligibility, participants will return for three main study visits in Part A. During the main study visits, study participants will receive either oxytocin or placebo, followed by assessments of emotional behavior. In Part A, thirty participants will be equally randomized to one of six possible groups: 1. 6 IU oxytocin - 24 IU oxytocin - placebo 2. 6 IU oxytocin - placebo - 24 IU oxytocin 3. 24 IU oxytocin - 6 IU oxytocin - placebo 4. 24 IU oxytocin - placebo - 6 IU oxytocin 5. placebo - 6 IU oxytocin - 24 IU oxytocin 6. placebo - 24 IU oxytocin - 6 IU oxytocin Following completion of the Part A crossover portion of the study, in Part B participants may also choose to continue participation in an optional, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled substudy of intranasal oxytocin 6 IU or placebo three times a day for two weeks, followed by assessments of emotional behavior.

The aim of this research study is to test the feasibility of a physical and mental health intervention (Positive Minds, Strong Joints or PMSJ) for Black adults with knee osteoarthritis (OA).

The goal of this clinical trial is to learn if music use affects anxiety or pain levels in parturients admitted to labor and delivery. It will also learn about the effect of music use on patient satisfaction. The main questions it aims to answer are: Does music use affect anxiety levels in parturients admitted to labor and delivery? Does music use affect pain levels in parturients admitted to labor and delivery? Does music use affect patient satisfaction in parturients admitted to labor and delivery? Researchers will compare music to a control (no music) to see if music affects anxiety levels in parturients admitted to labor and delivery. Participants will: Listen to music or listen to no music for a 10 minute duration in the labor and delivery unit. Answer questions about anxiety and pain levels at a few different timepoints. Have information collected from medical charts (vital signs and cervical dilation). Rate their satisfaction with care.

This study will determine the effects of pregnenolone on brain function, inflammation and depressive symptoms in people with HIV who have depression. Participants in this study will receive a pill of either pregnenolone or placebo, and can stay on their current antidepression medications. Brain imaging and behavioral assessments will be performed during the study.

The primary goal of this Phase 2 clinical trial is to determine the effects of a novel V1a receptor antagonist (NTX-1472) in adults with Social Anxiety Disorder (SAD). The main questions this trial aims to answer are: * Is NTX-1472 safe and well tolerated in adults with SAD? * How effectively does NTX-1472 treat adults with SAD? Researchers will compare the effects of NTX-1472 with matching placebo (a look-alike capsule that contains no drug). Participants will: * Take NTX-1472 or matching placebo every day for 8 weeks * Visit the clinic 6 times over the course of 14 weeks for checkups and tests

The goal of this study is to find the best way to help participants and families manage the stress of facing a serious illness and be better able to "bounce back" or be resilient after a difficult situation. Participants will take part in the "Promoting Resilience in Stress Management" PRISM program, which is designed to provide skills to change or improve the impact of stress in everyday life. The name of the intervention used in this research study is: -PRISM (a mobile app program comprised of 6 sessions of skills-based, manualized resilience education)

This is a randomized, parallel-group, double-blind, placebo-controlled, monotherapy study to evaluate the efficacy, safety, and tolerability of SPT-300 (GlyphAllo) in adults with major depressive disorder (MDD), with or without anxious distress.