Recruiting

Text Message & Relaxation

Sponsor:

Florida State University

Code:

NCT07589621

Conditions

Body Dysmorphic Disorder

Eating Disorders

Social Anxiety Disorder

Eligibility Criteria

Sex: All

Age: 18 - 65

Healthy Volunteers: Not accepted

Interventions

Safety Behavior Fading for Appearance Concerns

Progressive Muscle Relaxation

Study Details

Brief summary:

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.

Conditions

Body Dysmorphic Disorder

Eating Disorders

Social Anxiety Disorder

Study ID

NCT07589621

Start date

May 29, 2026

Status verified date

May, 2026

Completion date

Dec, 2026

Anticipated

Primary completion date

Dec, 2026

Anticipated

Eligibility Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

Sex: All

Age: 18 - 65

Healthy Volunteers: Not accepted

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

Study Design

Enrollment

300 participants

Anticipated

Allocation

Randomized

Intervention Model

Parallel Assignment

Primary purpose

Treatment

Interventions and Outcome Measures

Arms

experimental: Safety Behavior Fading

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 engaged in each safety behavior over the previous day.

active comparator: Progressive Muscle Relaxation

Participants in this condition will be instructed to try and practice progressive muscle relaxation daily for 28 days. To match safety behavior fading 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.

Interventions

Safety Behavior Fading for Appearance Concerns

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

Progressive Muscle Relaxation

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

Primary outcome measure

  • The Social Appearance Anxiety Scale (SAAS) [ Time Frame: Day 0, Day 28, Day 56 ]
  • Appearance Behaviors Checklist past-week version (author constructed) [ Time Frame: Day 0, Day 28, Day 56 ]
  • Appearance Anxiety Inventory (AAI; Veale et al., 2014) [ Time Frame: Day 0, Day 28, Day 56 ]
  • Social Phobia Inventory (SPIN; Connor et al., 2000) [ Time Frame: Day 0, Day 28, Day 56 ]
  • Eating Disorder-15 (ED-15; Tatham et al., 2015). [ Time Frame: Day 0, Day 28, Day 56 ]
  • The Eating Disorder Inventory-Body Dissatisfaction (EDI; Garner et al., 1983). [ Time Frame: Day 0, Day 28, Day 56 ]
  • Credibility and Expectancy Questionnaire (CEQ; Devilly & Borkovec, 2000). [ Time Frame: Day 0 ]

Central Contacts and Locations

Central contacts

Tapan Patel, Master of Science

863-517-2584patel@psy.fsu.edu

Locations

Florida State University

Recruiting

Tallahassee, Florida, United States, 32308

Contacts

Tapan Patel, Master of Science

8635172584patel@psy.fsu.edu

More Information

Sponsor

Florida State University

Last update posted

Jun 2, 2026

Last verified

May, 2026

Trial information was received from ClinicalTrials.gov and was last updated on 2026-09-10. This information was provided to ClinicalTrials.gov by Florida State University on 2026-06-02.