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.