Altered Neural Pain Empathic Reactivity in NSSI Adolescents

Sponsor

University of Electronic Science and Technology of China (Other)

Overall Status

Not yet recruiting

CT.gov ID

NCT05968313

Collaborator

(none)

Enrollment

Anticipated Duration (Months)

Study Details

Study Description

Brief Summary

Nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI) is defined as direct, deliberate bodily harm without suicidal intention. In recent years, growing evidence suggests that NSSI has become a worldwide public health issue. People with NSSI behaviors, especially adolescents, commonly exhibit emotion-related and interpersonal problems. Pain empathy represents an essential basal domain of socio-emotional processing and refers to the ability to empathize, connect and share with others' pain. However, altered empathic processing has not been systematically examined in adolescents with NSSI. To this end, the current functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study will recruit one group of NSSI adolescents (n=40) and one healthy control (HC) group (n=40), to compare their neural activity regarding pain empathy processing, which is measured by blood oxygenation level-dependent (BOLD) fMRI. The investigators included conditions of physical pain empathy (stimuli depicting noxious stimulation to the limbs) and affective pain empathy (stimuli depicting faces expressing pain) as well as corresponding control stimuli. The investigators hypothesize that compared to HC, NSSI adolescents show increased empathic reactivity to physical pain stimuli in salience and arousal related brain regions but decreased empathic reactivity to affective pain empathic stimuli.

Condition or Disease	Intervention/Treatment	Phase
Nonsuicidal Self Injury Pain Empathy

Study Design

Study Type:

Observational

Anticipated Enrollment :

80 participants

Observational Model:

Case-Control

Time Perspective:

Cross-Sectional

Official Title:

Abnormal Neural Pain Empathic Processing in Adolescents With Non-suicidal Self-Injury

Anticipated Study Start Date :

Jul 1, 2023

Anticipated Primary Completion Date :

Jul 1, 2026

Anticipated Study Completion Date :

Jul 1, 2027

Arms and Interventions

Arm	Intervention/Treatment
NSSI
HC

Outcome Measures

Primary Outcome Measures

Neural activity as indexed by BOLD fMRI [About 8 minutes]
Brain activity will be monitored by task-based fMRI. The paradigm will present affective and physical pain empathy pictures and matched control stimuli. Alterations in the patients will be determined by comparing neural activity to the experimental conditions between the experimental groups (NSSI vs. HC) using ANOVA models.

Eligibility Criteria

Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study:

15 Years to 18 Years

Sexes Eligible for Study:

All

Accepts Healthy Volunteers:

Yes

Inclusion Criteria:

15-18 years
right-handed
normal or corrected normal visual acuity
meet the proposed DSM-5 frequency criteria (e.g., ≥5 days of NSSI behaviors in the past year)

Exclusion Criteria:

diagnosis of borderline personality disorder, major depressive disorder, other
psychiatric disorders, etc.
high suicidal risk
recent use of medications that can affect neural activity
have received or are receiving Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) other treatment for emotional problems within the past 6 months
have a contraindication to MRI scanning (e.g., metal implants, claustrophobia or other conditions that make them inappropriate for MRI scanning)

Contacts and Locations

Locations

No locations specified.

Sponsors and Collaborators

University of Electronic Science and Technology of China

Investigators

None specified.

Study Documents (Full-Text)

None provided.

More Information

Publications

None provided.

Responsible Party:

Benjamin Becker, Professor, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China

ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier:

NCT05968313

Other Study ID Numbers:

BAM_lab_NSSI_02

First Posted:

Aug 1, 2023

Last Update Posted:

Aug 2, 2023

Last Verified:

Jul 1, 2023

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated Drug Product:

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated Device Product:

Additional relevant MeSH terms:

Self-Injurious Behavior

Study Results

No Results Posted as of Aug 2, 2023