BEAST: Behavioral Economics Intervention to Increase Treatment Seeking in the National Guard

Sponsor

University of Southern Mississippi (Other)

Overall Status

Enrolling by invitation

CT.gov ID

NCT04098588

Collaborator

Military Suicide Research Consortium (Other)

112

Enrollment

Location

Arms

27.5

Anticipated Duration (Months)

4.1

Patients Per Site Per Month

Study Details

Study Description

Brief Summary

The study is a randomized controlled trial of a single-session behavioral economics (research combining the areas of economics, social psychology, and cognitive psychology) intervention (i.e., BEAST) is a"warrior-culture" consistent (i.e., focusing on positive soldier traits, solving practical problems), highly scalable, and extremely brief (10-minute) intervention to encourage treatment seeking among MS National Guard problems for various life stressors. Participants will be 112 National Guard members. It is hypothesized that BEAST will lead to more self-reported motivation to seek treatment and more actual treatment seeking behavior.

Condition or Disease	Intervention/Treatment	Phase
Treatment Refusal	Behavioral: BEAST Behavioral: Descriptive Feedback	N/A

Study Design

Study Type:

Interventional

Anticipated Enrollment :

112 participants

Allocation:

Randomized

Intervention Model:

Parallel Assignment

Masking:

Single (Participant)

Primary Purpose:

Treatment

Official Title:

Behavioral Economics Intervention to Increase Treatment Seeking in the National Guard

Actual Study Start Date :

Dec 15, 2019

Anticipated Primary Completion Date :

Dec 31, 2021

Anticipated Study Completion Date :

Mar 31, 2022

Arms and Interventions

Arm	Intervention/Treatment
Experimental: BEAST There are 3 parts to BEAST. Part 1 involves the Behavioral Nudge technique using previously collected injunctive and descriptive norms from a National Guard sample. Soldiers will be given a customized feedback form that shows norms relevant to the target behavior they selected. The soldier will be given a chance to ask any follow-up questions. Part 2 of the intervention focuses on the principle of targeting others, considering how a change would impact those closest to them. Part 3 will utilize the Reciprocal Concessions procedure combined with the Reducing Barriers technique.	Behavioral: BEAST See Arm Description
Active Comparator: Descriptive Feedback This condition will involve a presentation of descriptive data based on the soldiers' tests scores and an opportunity to ask any follow-up questions. This process is a component of some behavioral change interventions (e.g., motivational interviewing); therefore this should be a more useful control condition (mirroring parts 1 and 2 of the active condition) versus a more passive or waitlist control condition. Participants in the control condition will also be given standard referral information to the USM Psychology Clinic (mirroring part 3 of the active condition).	Behavioral: Descriptive Feedback See Arm Description

Arm

Intervention/Treatment

Experimental: BEAST

There are 3 parts to BEAST. Part 1 involves the Behavioral Nudge technique using previously collected injunctive and descriptive norms from a National Guard sample. Soldiers will be given a customized feedback form that shows norms relevant to the target behavior they selected. The soldier will be given a chance to ask any follow-up questions. Part 2 of the intervention focuses on the principle of targeting others, considering how a change would impact those closest to them. Part 3 will utilize the Reciprocal Concessions procedure combined with the Reducing Barriers technique.

Behavioral: BEAST

See Arm Description

Active Comparator: Descriptive Feedback

This condition will involve a presentation of descriptive data based on the soldiers' tests scores and an opportunity to ask any follow-up questions. This process is a component of some behavioral change interventions (e.g., motivational interviewing); therefore this should be a more useful control condition (mirroring parts 1 and 2 of the active condition) versus a more passive or waitlist control condition. Participants in the control condition will also be given standard referral information to the USM Psychology Clinic (mirroring part 3 of the active condition).

Behavioral: Descriptive Feedback

See Arm Description

Outcome Measures

Primary Outcome Measures

Psychosocial Treatments Interview-Revised [1 month post intervention]
Measure changes in treatment seeking behavior
University of Rhode Island Change Assessment [1 month post intervention]
Measure motivation to change the target behavior

Secondary Outcome Measures

Psychosocial Treatments Interview-Revised [3 month post intervention]
Measure changes in treatment seeking behavior
University of Rhode Island Change Assessment [3 month post intervention]
Measure motivation to change the target behavior

Eligibility Criteria

Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study:

18 Years to 65 Years

Sexes Eligible for Study:

All

Accepts Healthy Volunteers:

Inclusion Criteria:

National Guard active
17 ACSS-FAD

Exclusion Criteria:

those determined by military or study personnel to be actively psychotic, manic, or who are imminently suicidal and in need of emergency services.

Contacts and Locations

Locations

	Site	City	State	Country	Postal Code
1	University of Southern Mississippi	Hattiesburg	Mississippi	United States	39406-0002

Sponsors and Collaborators

University of Southern Mississippi
Military Suicide Research Consortium

Investigators

None specified.

Study Documents (Full-Text)

None provided.

More Information

Publications

None provided.

Responsible Party:

University of Southern Mississippi

ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier:

NCT04098588

Other Study ID Numbers:

W81XWH-16-2-0003

First Posted:

Sep 23, 2019

Last Update Posted:

May 10, 2021

Last Verified:

May 1, 2021

Individual Participant Data (IPD) Sharing Statement:

Undecided

Plan to Share IPD:

Undecided

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

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

Study Results

No Results Posted as of May 10, 2021