Acceptance and Commitment Therapy for Problematic Chemsex

Keywords

• Sexuality
• Risky sexual behavior

Lead sponsor

Universidad Europea de Madrid is the lead sponsor of 94 studies on the registry; 22 are open to participants now.

Study arms

• Experimental
  ACT group

  8 individual weekly sessions including ACT methods

  Behavioral: Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)

Interventions

• BehavioralAcceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)

  Acceptance and Commitment Therapy methods were focused on promoting Values clarification, Acceptance, Cognitive defusion, Committed action and Flexible attention to the present moment, and included methods such as the Garden Metaphor, Funeral exercise or Mindfulness training.

Primary outcomes

1. Change in Hypersexual Behavior Inventory (HBI)

   The Hypersexual Behavior Inventory is a 19-item, seven-point Likert-type scale. Scores range between 19 and 95. Higher scores indicate higher levels of Hypersexuality and worse outcome. The presence of a problem of hypersexuality is considered when the score is equal or higher than 53.

   Time frame: Change from Baseline Hypersexuality at 5 months

Secondary outcomes

1. Change in Drug Abuse Screening Test (Dast-10)

   Drug Abuse Screening Test is a self-administered 10-item questionnaire with dichotomous (Yes/No) responses designed to identify individuals with problematic drug use. Scores range between 0 and 10. Different cutoff points are established regarding problematic substance use, as follows: 0 = low risk or abstinence, 1-2 = risk, 3-5 = harmful, \> 6 = substance dependence. The presence of a problem of substance abuse is considered when the score is equal or higher than 3.

   Time frame: Change from Baseline Drug Abuse at 5 months

2. Change in Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI)

   Anxiety and Depression subscales of The Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI) include 15 items, each item is rated on a 5-point scale (0 to 4) according to manifestations of anxiety and depression symptoms in the last 30 days (ranging from ''not at-all'' to ''extremely''). Higher scores indicate higher levels of anxiety and depression and worse outcome.

   Time frame: Change from Baseline Anxiety and Depression at 5 months

3. Change in Acceptance and Action Questionnaire (AAQ-II)

   Acceptance and Action Questionnaire assesses psychological inflexibility. It is a 7-item, seven-point Likert-type scale. Scores range between 7 and 49. Higher scores indicate higher levels of psychological inflexibility and worse outcome. The presence of a problem of psychological inflexibility is considered when the score is equal or higher than 27.

   Time frame: Change from Baseline psychological inflexibility at 5 months

4. Change in Short Internalized Homonegativity Scale (SIHS)

   Internalized homophobia has been defined as "the internalization of society's homophobic attitudes within a lesbian, gay, or bisexual individual". The Short Internalized Homonegativity Scale measures this phenomenon through a 13-item, five-point Likert-type scale ranging from strongly disagree to strongly agree. Scores range between 13 and 65. Higher scores indicate higher levels of internalized homonegativity and worse outcome. For men, the mean total score is 28.16 (SD = 8.23). The questionnaire includes three sub-scales: public identification as homosexual, sexual comfort with homosexual and social comfort with homosexual people.

   Time frame: Change from Baseline Internalized Homonegativity at 5 months

5. Change in Social and Emotional Loneliness in Adults (SESLA)

   The Scale of Evaluation of Social and Emotional Loneliness in Adults evaluates loneliness. The scale is comprised of 3 factors: social loneliness, which reflects the lack of friends and social relationships, family loneliness, which reflects the lack of a supportive family environment for the person, and romantic loneliness, which reflects the lack of an intimate romantic relationship. The scale consists of 15 items with which agreement or disagreement is shown according to a 7-point Likert-type scale. Scores range between 15 and 105. Higher scores indicate higher levels of loneliness and worse outcome.

   Time frame: Change from Baseline Emotional Loneliness at 5 months

6. Change in Awareness, Courage and Responsiveness Scale (ACRS)

   The Awareness, Courage and Responsiveness Scale is the first measure created to assess a contextual-behavioral model of Intimacy, rooted in the Functional Analytic Psychotherapy. It is a 24-item self-report assessment to evaluate the components of the ACR model, using a 7-point Likert-type scale from 1 (never true) to 7 (always true). The scale is comprised of 4 subscales: Others-Awareness (OA), 5 items; Self-Awareness (SA), 6 items; Courage (C), 6 items; and Responsiveness (R), 7 items. The total sum of the items of the scale is considered a global measure of Intimacy (ACRS-T). Scores range between 24 and 168. Higher scores indicate higher levels of skills to generate intimacy and better outcome.

   Time frame: Change from Baseline Awareness, Courage and Responsiveness at 5 months

7. Change in The Comprehensive Assessment of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy Processes (CompACT)

   The Comprehensive Assessment of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy Processes Change is a 23-item, seven-point Likert-type scale. Scores range between 0 and 138. Higher scores indicate higher levels of psychological flexibility and better outcome. This scale provides more accurate information about each of the psychological processes underlying psychological flexibility. Specifically, it consists of 3 subscales: openness, awareness, and action.

   Time frame: Change from Baseline psychological flexibility at 5 months

8. Change in the Life Values Questionnaire (VLQ)

   The Life Values Questionnaire relates to 10 domains of different life values, which include: family, marriage/intimate partner relationships, parenthood, friendship, work, education, leisure, spirituality, citizenship, and physical self-care. Participants are asked to evaluate on a Likert scale from 0 to 10 the degree of importance they give to these values, where 0 is of little importance and 10 is of great importance. Additionally, they are asked to rate the degree of consistency with which they engage in actions committed to these values, ranging from 0 to 10. Scores are obtained for different sub-scales: importance, consistency, and discrepancy. As a global score for the questionnaire, the composite score is obtained by subtracting the consistency score from the importance score. Higher scores in discrepancy indicates lower levels of value consistency living and worse outcome.

   Time frame: Change from Baseline value consistency living at 5 months

9. Change in Time spent planning or practicing sex per week

   Time spent (hours) planning or practicing sex during last week. Higher number of hours indicate worse outcome.

   Time frame: Through study completion, an average of 5 months

10. Change in Frequency of chemsex encounters per week

    Self-monitoring: Frequency of practicing chemsex during last week. Higher number of chemsex encounters indicate worse outcome.

    Time frame: Through study completion, an average of 5 months

11. Change in number of different sexual partners per week

    Self-monitoring: Number of different sexual partners during last week. Higher number of different sexual partners indicate worse outcome.

    Time frame: Through study completion, an average of 5 months

12. Change in Frequency of substance consumption per week

    Self-monitoring: Frequency of consuming substances during last week. Higher number of substances consumed indicate worse outcome.

    Time frame: Through study completion, an average of 5 months

13. Change in Frequency of risky sexual practices per week

    Self-monitoring: Frequency of risky sexual practices during the last week. Higher number of risky sexual practices indicate worse outcome.

    Time frame: Through study completion, an average of 5 months

14. Change in number of new diagnoses of sexually transmitted infections per week

    Self-monitoring: Number of new diagnoses of sexually transmitted infections. Higher number of new diagnoses indicate worse outcome.

    Time frame: Through study completion, an average of 5 months

15. Change in Intensity of cravings subjective scale

    Global self-assessment of intensity of cravings Visual Analogue Scale-ratings. Scores range from 0 = very low intensity to 10 = very high intensity. Higher scores indicate higher levels of intensity of cravings and worse outcome

    Time frame: Through study completion, an average of 5 months

16. Change in Interference of cravings subjective scale

    Global self-assessment of interference of cravings Visual Analogue Scale-ratings. Scores range from 0 = very low interference to 10 = very high interference. Higher scores indicate higher levels of interference of cravings and worse outcome.

    Time frame: Through study completion, an average of 5 months

17. Change in Frequency of value committed actions per week

    Self-monitoring: Frequency of value committed actions in presence of craving during last week. Higher number of value committed actions indicate better outcome.

    Time frame: Through study completion, an average of 5 months

Study documents

• Protocol and statistical analysis plan · Apr 4, 2024
• Informed consent form · Apr 4, 2024

Documents are hosted by the registry — open the source record to download them.

Individual participant data

Plan to share: No