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NCT Number: NCT07589621

Safety Behavior Fading Versus Progressive Muscle Relaxation for Appearance Concerns

The current study aims to explore the efficacy of a text message based safety behavior fading intervention compared to a progressive muscle relaxation intervention for appearance concerns.

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Key information

Conditions

Body Dysmorphic Disorder Anxiety Disorders Body Dysmorphic Disorders Eating Disorders Feeding and Eating Disorders Mental Disorders Pathological Conditions, Signs and Symptoms Phobia, Social Phobic Disorders Signs and Symptoms Signs and Symptoms, Digestive Social Anxiety Disorder Somatoform Disorders

Age range

18 year–65 year

Sex eligibility

All sexes

Study type

Interventional

Phase

Not applicable

Primary location

Florida State University

Tallahassee, Florida, 32308, United States

Location status: Recruiting

Location contact

Tapan Patel, Master of Science

CONTACT

[email protected]

8635172584

About this study

Appearance-related safety behavior fading intervention procedures will follow methodology previously used in the Cougle Lab. The safety behavior fading intervention is designed to target a decrease or elimination of appearance-related safety behaviors. Individuals randomly assigned to the safety behavior fading condition will receive instructions to decrease or eliminate their endorsed appearance-related safety behaviors. In addition, they will receive daily reminders via text message to decrease these behaviors, along with a safety behavior monitoring checklist in which the participant indicates the extent to which they decreased and/or eliminated each safety behavior over the previous day. The daily reminder will include the following language: "Hi! This is a friendly reminder to avoid using your checklist behaviors. Please tap the link below to access today's checklist: [link to checklist]." Text messages will be delivered using EZtexting a text messaging platform used for research and marketing. Note that no identifying information will be included in this platform. Each participants phone number will be accompanied with a anonymized ID code. Individuals randomly assigned to the progressive muscle relaxation condition will be instructed to try and practice it daily for the 28 days. They will also receive daily text messages to remind them to practice relaxation and they can log which of the 10 different muscle groups they tensed and released in the past day.

Who can participate

Healthy volunteers accepted: No

Only the study team can determine whether someone qualifies for participation.

Inclusion criteria

  • being between the ages of 18 and 65 years old
  • having an internet-capable smart-phone
  • scoring at or above the empirical cutoff for appearance concerns measured by the Social Appearance Anxiety Scale (i.e., 52)

Exclusion criteria

  • changes in psychotropic medication in the last 4 weeks
  • failing attention checks in baseline data collection

Treatment and study plan

Safety Behavior Fading for Appearance Concerns

Behavioral

Participants are asked to reduce or eliminate safety behaviors via text message reminders and checklists to monitor progress.

Other names: ARSB Fading

Progressive Muscle Relaxation

Behavioral

Participants are asked to practice relaxation daily via text message reminder and checklists to monitor progress.

Primary outcomes

  1. The Social Appearance Anxiety Scale (SAAS)

    Time frame: Day 0, Day 28, Day 56

    Self-report scale that measures appearance anxiety symptoms. Scores range from 16 to 80 with higher scores indicating higher levels of appearance concerns.

  2. Appearance Behaviors Checklist past-week version (author constructed)

    Time frame: Day 0, Day 28, Day 56

    Self-report scale used to measure frequency of engaging in appearance-related safety behaviors. This scale will be used as a manipulation check. Each item is rated on a 0 to 10 scale. Total scores range from 0 to 130 with higher scores indicating greater engagement in appearance-related safety behaviors

  3. Appearance Anxiety Inventory (AAI; Veale et al., 2014)

    Time frame: Day 0, Day 28, Day 56

    Self-report scale that measures of body dysmorphic symptoms. Scores range from 0 to 40 with higher scores indicating higher levels of body dysmorphic symptoms.

  4. Social Phobia Inventory (SPIN; Connor et al., 2000)

    Time frame: Day 0, Day 28, Day 56

    Self-report scale that measures social anxiety symptoms. Scores range from 0 to 68 with higher scores indicating higher levels of social anxiety.

  5. Eating Disorder-15 (ED-15; Tatham et al., 2015).

    Time frame: Day 0, Day 28, Day 56

    Self-report scale that measures eating disorder symptoms. Scores range from 0 to 90 with higher scores indicating higher levels of eating pathology.

  6. The Eating Disorder Inventory-Body Dissatisfaction (EDI; Garner et al., 1983).

    Time frame: Day 0, Day 28, Day 56

    Self-report scale for measuring body dissatisfaction for use in clinical outcome studies. Each item is rated on a 0-5 scale with a total score range of 9-54 with higher scores indicating greater drive for thinness, bulimia, and body dissatisfaction.

  7. Credibility and Expectancy Questionnaire (CEQ; Devilly & Borkovec, 2000).

    Time frame: Day 0

    Self-report scale for measuring treatment expectancy and rationale credibility for use in clinical outcome studies. Three items are rated on a 0-10 scale and one item is rated on a 0-100 scale with higher scores meaning greater expectancy and credibility.

Secondary outcomes

  1. Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale-10 (CESD; Andreson, 1994)

    Time frame: Day 0, Day 28, Day 56

    Self-report measure of depression symptom severity. Each item is rated on a 0 to 3 scale. Total scores range from 0 to 30 with higher scores indicating greater depression severity.

  2. Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7 (GAD-7; Spitzer et al., 2006)

    Time frame: Day 0, Day 28, Day 56

    Self-report measure of anxiety symptom severity. Each item is rated on a 0 to 3 scale. Total scores range from 0 to 28 with higher scores indicating greater anxiety severity.

  3. Appearance Preference Task

    Time frame: Day 0, Day 28, Day 56

    Computerized forced-choice task measuring appearance importance relative to other favorable characteristics. The APT randomly presents a series of 33 word pairs and asks the participant to select the concept that is more important to them. Each pair consists of a positive appearance-related adjective and a positive character trait unrelated to appearance (e.g., beautiful-responsible). Higher scores indicate greater endorsement of appearance words.

  4. Social Interaction Scale (Author Constructed)

    Time frame: Day 0, Day 28, Day 56

    Single-item self-report scale that the extent to which individuals engage with their social support networks. This question asks: "what percentage of your time awake did you spend interacting with others this past week (0% =No time at all, 100% =all of the time)?"

  5. Body Dysmorphic Disorder Symptom Scale-Cognitive Subscale (Wilhelm et al., 2016)

    Time frame: Day 0, Day 28, Day 56

    Self-report scale that measures cognitions related to body dysmorphic disorder. Scores range from 0 to 190 with higher scores indicating higher levels of maladaptive cognitions related to body dysmorphic disorder.

Study contacts

Contact information is provided by the study sponsor or research team.

Tapan Patel, Master of Science

CONTACT

[email protected]

863-517-2584

Sponsors and collaborators

Lead sponsor

Florida State University

Other

Registry information

Official study title

Safety Behavior Fading Versus Progressive Muscle Relaxation for Appearance Concerns: A Randomized Clinical Trial of Digital Interventions

Important dates

Study start
2026
Primary completion
2026
Study completion
2026
First posted
May 15, 2026
Registry last updated
Jun 2, 2026

OpenTrials presents study information sourced from ClinicalTrials.gov. The official registry record should be consulted for the latest information.

View the official ClinicalTrials.gov record (opens in a new tab)

This listing is for discovery and informational purposes only. It is not medical advice, does not guarantee that a study is recruiting, and does not determine eligibility. Contact the study team and a qualified healthcare professional when considering participation.

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