TY - JOUR T1 - Effects of Attentional Bias Modification on Residual Symptoms in depression. A Randomized Controlled Trial JF - bioRxiv DO - 10.1101/318279 SP - 318279 AU - Rune Jonassen AU - Catherine J. Harmer AU - Eva Hilland AU - Luigi A. Maglanoc AU - Brage Kraft AU - Michael Browning AU - Tore C. Stiles AU - Vegard Ă˜. Haaland AU - Torkil Berge AU - Nils Inge Landrø Y1 - 2018/01/01 UR - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2018/05/13/318279.abstract N2 - Objective Following treatment, many depressed patients have significant residual symptoms. However, large randomised controlled trials (RCT) in this population are lacking. Attention bias modification training (ABM) can modify biases in emotion processing and may lead to symptom relief. We hypothesized that two weeks of ABM training would reduce clinician rated and self-reported residual symptoms and that change towards more positive attentional biases (AB) would be associated with symptom reduction.Method A total of 322 patients with a history of depression were included in a preregistered randomized controlled double-blinded trial. Patients were randomised to an emotional ABM paradigm over fourteen days or a closely matched control condition. Symptoms based on the Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression (HRSD) and Beck Depression Inventory II (BDI-II) were obtained at baseline and after ABM training. The primary outcome was change in HRSD and BDI-II. Participants were assessed for AB before and after the intervention.Results ABM training led to significantly greater decrease in clinician rated symptoms of depression as compared to the control condition. No differences between ABM and placebo were found for self-reported symptoms. ABM induced a change of AB towards more positive versus neutral stimuli with a more positive bias being associated with greater symptom reduction.Conclusion The current study demonstrates that ABM produces early changes in both AB and residual depressive symptoms. ABM may have practical potential in the treatment of residual depression.Trial Registration clinicaltrials.gov Identifier: NCT02658682. ER -