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Status unknownNCT05453981Updated Aug 23, 2022

A Pilot RCT on the Efficacy of TranS-C Intervention on Anxiety Symptoms

An interventional study of Transdiagnostic Sleep and Circadian Intervention in Anxiety, sponsored by Chinese University of Hong Kong. Status unknown at 1 site in Hong Kong. Open to participants aged 18 Years and older. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2022-08-23.

Sponsored by Chinese University of Hong Kong · Not applicable, Interventional, and Treatment

The sponsor has not verified this record recently (last verified Aug 2022), so the status shown — last known as Not yet recruiting — may be out of date.
Phase
Not applicable
Study type
Interventional
Enrollment
80
Allocation
Randomized
Ages
18 Years and older
Sex
All
01

Study summary

This study will examine whether the Transdiagnostic Sleep and Circadian Intervention (TranS-C; Harvey \& Buysse, 2017) can improve sleep and circadian functioning and reduce disorder-focused symptoms in patients with anxiety symptoms. Sleep disturbance is highly comorbid with GAD (Dolsen et al., 2014). TranS-C, targeting common sleep disturbances in disorders, has improved disorder-focused symptoms and sleep and circadian functioning in patients with Severe mental illness (SMI). Nonetheless, no study examined TranS-C's efficacy on GAD patients specifically. Hence, this study will be a pilot study that examines the efficacy of TranS-C on people with anxiety symptoms by comparing with a care-as-usual control group (CAU).

Around 80 Hong Kong residents aged 18 or above, with a GAD-7 score 10 or above and at least 1 sleep or circadian problem will be recruited. Eligible participants will be randomized to the TranS-C group or CAU group in a 1:1 ratio. The TranS-C group will receive 2-hour group-based TranS-C intervention delivered by clinical psychology trainees for 6 weeks under the supervision of a clinical psychologist. Both groups will complete a set of questionnaires at baseline, immediate post-treatment and 12-week follow-up. They will also complete sleep diaries throughout as homework. The outcome measures include mood, sleep, quality of life etc. This study will test whether theTranS-C intervention apparoach can be considered as a treatment for people with anxiety symptoms and sleep problems.

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Conditions studied

  • Anxiety

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Keywords

  • Anxiety
  • Insomnia
  • Transdiagnostic Sleep and Circadian Treatment
  • randomised controlled trial
  • TranS-C
  • Transdiagnostic Sleep intervention
03

In context

Anxiety Disorders

4,868 studies on the registry are indexed under Anxiety Disorders; 1,390 are open to participants now.

This study's planned enrollment of 80 is close to the median of 80 across 4,174 interventional studies indexed under Anxiety Disorders.

Browse Anxiety Disorders studies →

Lead sponsor

Chinese University of Hong Kong is the lead sponsor of 1,419 studies on the registry; 487 are open to participants now.

Counted across the registry records on this site, refreshed daily.

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Who can participate

Ages eligible
18 Years and older
Sexes eligible
All
Accepts healthy volunteers
No

Inclusion criteria

  1. Hong Kong residents aged ≥ 18 years;
  2. Cantonese language fluency;
  3. Score on GAD-7 is 10 or above (Johnson et al., 2019, Spitzer et al., 2006);
  4. At least 1 sleep or circadian problem according to the Sleep and Circadian Problem Checklist, including time needed to fall asleep more than 30 minutes for more than 3 nights per week, less than 6 hours of sleep per night or at least 9 hour of sleep per night per 24 hour period for at least 3 nights per week, variability in the sleep-wake schedule at least 2.78 hours within a week, and falling asleep after 2 am on at least 3 nights per week;
  5. Adequate opportunity and circumstances for sleep to occur; and willing to give informed consent and comply with the trial protocol.

Exclusion criteria

Exclusion Criteria:

  1. Presence of other psychiatric disorders as defined by the DSM-V diagnostic criteria;
  2. Have suicidal ideation based on Beck Depression Inventory (BDI-II) Item 9 score ≥ 2;
  3. Major medical or neurocognitive disorders that make participation infeasible;
  4. Untreated sleep disorders based on SLEEP-50 (≥ 7 on narcolepsy; ≥ 15 on OSA; ≥ 7 on RLS/PLMD);
  5. Past or current involvement in a psychological treatment programme for anxiety disorder and/or sleep problems;
  6. Shift work, pregnancy, work, family, or other commitments that interfere with regular night-time sleep patterns;
  7. Hospitalization;
  8. A change in psychotropic drugs within 2 weeks before baseline assessment
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Study design

Phase
Not applicable
Primary purpose
Treatment
Allocation
Randomized
Intervention model
Parallel assignment
Masking
Single (Outcomes assessor)
Enrollment
80 participants (estimated)

Study arms

  • Experimental
    TranS-C group

    The TranS-C group will receive weekly 2 hour TranS-C group intervention delivered by 2 clinical psychology trainees for 6 weeks, contents being core modules from Harvey et al. (2016)'s protocol.

    Behavioral: Transdiagnostic Sleep and Circadian Intervention

  • No intervention
    CAU group

    The CAU group will receive care as usual.

Interventions

  • BehavioralTransdiagnostic Sleep and Circadian Intervention

    Transdiagnostic Sleep and Circadian Intervention (TranS-C) integrates elements of evidence-based interventions, namely cognitive-behavioural therapy for insomnia, delayed sleep phase type, and interpersonal and social rhythm therapy. It targets common sleep disturbances in disorders and has improved disorder-focused symptoms and sleep and circadian functioning in patients with Severe mental illness (SMI).

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What researchers measure

Primary outcomes

  1. Change in the Generalized Anxiety Disorder 7-item Scale (GAD-7)

    A brief 7-item instrument for screening for GAD and assessing its severity in clinical practice and research. Anxiety severity is categorized using scores of 5-9 (mild), 10-14 (moderate) and 15 or more (severe).

    Time frame: baseline, immediate post-treatment and 12-week follow-up

Secondary outcomes

  1. Change in the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS)

    A 14-item self-rating scale that measures anxiety and depression in both hospital and community settings. It is divided into an Anxiety subscale (HADS-A) and a Depression subscale (HADS-D) both containing seven intermingled items. It is for screening purposes and not meant to be a diagnostic tool. HADS scores of 8-10, 11-14, and 15-21 represent mild, moderate, and severe anxiety and depression separately.

    Time frame: baseline, immediate post-treatment and 12-week follow-up

  2. Change in the 7-day Consensus Sleep Diary

    The standardized sleep diary records sleep-onset latency (SOL; min), wake after sleep onset (WASO; min), total wake time (TWT; min), total sleep time (TST; min), time in bed (TIB; min); sleep efficiency (SE; calculated as TST/TIB \* 100%), etc.

    Time frame: baseline, immediate post-treatment and 12-week follow-up

  3. Change in the Insomnia Severity Index (ISI)

    ISI is a 7-item scale designed to evaluate perceived insomnia severity. Ratings on the 5-point Likert scale are obtained on the perceived severity of sleep-onset, sleep-maintenance, early morning awakening problems, satisfaction with current sleep pattern, interference with daily functioning, noticeably of impairment attributed to the sleep problem, and level of distress caused by the sleep problem.

    Time frame: baseline, immediate post-treatment and 12-week follow-up

  4. Change in the Short Form (Six-Dimension) Health Survey - The Chinese (Hong Kong) Version

    A preference-based single index measure of health. A six-digit number represents each SF-6D health state, each digit denotes the level of one of six SF-6D dimensions: physical functioning, role limitation, social functioning, bodily pain, mental health, and vitality. The SF-6D index, scored from 0.0 (worst health state) to 1.0 (best health state).

    Time frame: baseline, immediate post-treatment and 12-week follow-up

  5. Change in the Multidimensional Fatigue Inventory (MFI)

    A 20-item self-report instrument designed to measure fatigue. Ratings on a 5-point Likert scale are obtained on the dimensions of general fatigue, physical fatigue, mental fatigue, reduced motivation and reduced activity. Scores on each subscale range from 4 to 20, with higher scores indicating greater fatigue.

    Time frame: baseline, immediate post-treatment and 12-week follow-up

  6. Change in the Credibility-Expectancy Questionnaire (CEQ)

    The 6-item CEQ yielded ratings of treatment credibility, acceptability/satisfaction, and expectations for success.

    Time frame: baseline, immediate post-treatment and 12-week follow-up

  7. Change in the Insomnia Treatment Acceptability Scale (ITAS)

    The 8-item Insomnia Treatment Acceptability Scale (ITAS) may examine treatment acceptability. Respondents would score each item from 0 (not at all acceptable) to 4 (very acceptable) to rate if the rationale made sense, how acceptable the treatment was for them, suitability for their sleep problem, and expected effectiveness for their sleep problem.

    Time frame: baseline, immediate post-treatment and 12-week follow-up

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Study locations

1 site
  • The Chinese University of Hong Kong
    Hong Kong, HKSAR, Hong Kong
08

References and documents

Publications

  • Bastien CH, Vallieres A, Morin CM. Validation of the Insomnia Severity Index as an outcome measure for insomnia research. Sleep Med. 2001 Jul;2(4):297-307. doi: 10.1016/s1389-9457(00)00065-4. PubMed 11438246 ↗
  • Carney CE, Buysse DJ, Ancoli-Israel S, Edinger JD, Krystal AD, Lichstein KL, Morin CM. The consensus sleep diary: standardizing prospective sleep self-monitoring. Sleep. 2012 Feb 1;35(2):287-302. doi: 10.5665/sleep.1642. PubMed 22294820 ↗
  • Devilly GJ, Borkovec TD. Psychometric properties of the credibility/expectancy questionnaire. J Behav Ther Exp Psychiatry. 2000 Jun;31(2):73-86. doi: 10.1016/s0005-7916(00)00012-4. PubMed 11132119 ↗
  • Harvey AG, Dong L, Hein K, Yu SH, Martinez AJ, Gumport NB, Smith FL, Chapman A, Lisman M, Mirzadegan IA, Mullin AC, Fine E, Dolsen EA, Gasperetti CE, Bukosky J, Alvarado-Martinez CG, Kilbourne AM, Rabe-Hesketh S, Buysse DJ. A randomized controlled trial of the Transdiagnostic Intervention for Sleep and Circadian Dysfunction (TranS-C) to improve serious mental illness outcomes in a community setting. J Consult Clin Psychol. 2021 Jun;89(6):537-550. doi: 10.1037/ccp0000650. PubMed 34264701 ↗
  • Glynn LG, Valderas JM, Healy P, Burke E, Newell J, Gillespie P, Murphy AW. The prevalence of multimorbidity in primary care and its effect on health care utilization and cost. Fam Pract. 2011 Oct;28(5):516-23. doi: 10.1093/fampra/cmr013. Epub 2011 Mar 24. PubMed 21436204 ↗
  • Lam CL, Brazier J, McGhee SM. Valuation of the SF-6D Health States Is Feasible, Acceptable, Reliable, and Valid in a Chinese Population. Value Health. 2008 Mar-Apr;11(2):295-303. doi: 10.1111/j.1524-4733.2007.00233.x. PubMed 18380642 ↗
  • Smets EM, Garssen B, Bonke B, De Haes JC. The Multidimensional Fatigue Inventory (MFI) psychometric qualities of an instrument to assess fatigue. J Psychosom Res. 1995 Apr;39(3):315-25. doi: 10.1016/0022-3999(94)00125-o. PubMed 7636775 ↗
  • Spitzer RL, Kroenke K, Williams JB, Lowe B. A brief measure for assessing generalized anxiety disorder: the GAD-7. Arch Intern Med. 2006 May 22;166(10):1092-7. doi: 10.1001/archinte.166.10.1092. PubMed 16717171 ↗
  • Zigmond AS, Snaith RP. The hospital anxiety and depression scale. Acta Psychiatr Scand. 1983 Jun;67(6):361-70. doi: 10.1111/j.1600-0447.1983.tb09716.x. PubMed 6880820 ↗

Individual participant data

Plan to share: No

09

Updates

Tracking since Sep 25, 2026
No changes since tracking began. The registry record was last updated on Aug 23, 2022, before this site started recording changes on Sep 25, 2026. Its history is on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗
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Registry details

Key details

Study ID
NCT05453981
Lead sponsor
Chinese University of Hong Kong
Responsible party
Fiona YY Ho (Assistant Professor, Chinese University of Hong Kong) — Principal investigator
First posted
Jul 12, 2022
Start date
Sep 1, 2022 (estimated)
Primary completion
Jun 1, 2023 (estimated)
Completion
Jun 1, 2023 (estimated)
Last update
Aug 23, 2022

Study contacts

Eugenia Kam
Contact
pmhlab@cuhk.edu.hk
3943 6575
Vivian Cheung
Contact
pmhlab@cuhk.edu.hk
3943 6575

Oversight

FDA-regulated drug
No
FDA-regulated device
No
View the source record on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗

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