CBM-Istudy2predata

People with high anxiety tend to interpret ambiguous cues negatively,
regardless of whether the cues are negative or positive. Cognitive bias
modification for interpretation (CBM-I) may reduce such biases. However,
CBM-I sessions for social anxiety in previous studies were held either
only once or twice a week in the laboratory and did not test the
Japanese population. In this study, we developed a Japanese version of
CBM-I. The current study investigated the effects of a short, intensive
program using two types of the Japanese version of CBM-I procedures. In
Study 1, 74 participants were randomly placed into either a one-week
program with online sessions of text-based scenarios training or a
control condition. In Study 2, 120 participants were randomized into
one-week online sessions of text-based scenarios training (four times)
and picture-word cue training (three times) or a control condition. In
both Study 1 and 2, participants in the control condition completed the
same positive interpretation task after a one-week standby. In Study 1,
individuals in the positive condition demonstrated significant
improvements in depressive symptoms from pre-intervention to
post-intervention compared to those in the control condition.
Improvements in depressive symptoms and interpretation bias at a
one-month follow-up were significant. In Study 2, in the positive
condition, there was a significant reduction in negative affect compared
to the control condition. In addition, there were greater reductions in
negative affect, social evaluative fear, and negative interpretation
bias at a one-month follow-up, irrespective of condition. Results
suggest that text-based CBM-I affects depressive symptom and
interpretation bias, text, and picture-based CBM-I especially affects
these emotional characteristics. Depending on the assessment and
treatment policy for patients, we might concurrently use two approaches,
one with text stimuli when stimulating depressive symptoms and
interpretations, and the other with picture stimuli when stimulating
emotions.