Altered Neural Pain Empathic Reactivity in NSSI Adolescents
For patients and families
In plain language
An automatic summary of structured registry data. It is an orientation aid, not a substitute for the official protocol or a physician assessment.
- What is being studied
- This is an observational study: the protocol does not assign a study treatment.
- Who it may be relevant to
- Registry conditions: Nonsuicidal Self Injury, Pain Empathy. Basic parameters: 15 years — 18 years · All.
- What needs checking
- Age, condition and sex are only basic indicators. Prior treatment, laboratory values and other mandatory requirements appear in the eligibility criteria below.
- Where it takes place
- China
- Next step
- Save the trial, show it to the treating physician, and confirm current recruitment with the study center. Costs, documents and travel →
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Official title
Abnormal Neural Pain Empathic Processing in Adolescents With Non-suicidal Self-Injury
Overview
Nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI) is defined as direct, deliberate bodily harm without suicidal intention. In recent years, growing evidence suggests that NSSI has become a worldwide public health issue. People with NSSI behaviors, especially adolescents, commonly exhibit emotion-related and interpersonal problems. Pain empathy represents an essential basal domain of socio-emotional processing and refers to the ability to empathize, connect and share with others' pain. However, altered empathic processing has not been systematically examined in adolescents with NSSI. To this end, the current functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study will recruit one group of NSSI adolescents (n=40) and one healthy control (HC) group (n=40), to compare their neural activity regarding pain empathy processing, which is measured by blood oxygenation level-dependent (BOLD) fMRI. The investigators included conditions of physical pain empathy (stimuli depicting noxious stimulation to the limbs) and affective pain empathy (stimuli depicting faces expressing pain) as well as corresponding control stimuli. The investigators hypothesize that compared to HC, NSSI adolescents show increased empathic reactivity to physical pain stimuli in salience and arousal related brain regions but decreased empathic reactivity to affective pain empathic stimuli.
Primary outcome measures
- Neural activity as indexed by BOLD fMRI [Time frame: About 8 minutes]
Eligibility criteria
Inclusion criteria
- 15-18 years
- right-handed
- normal or corrected normal visual acuity
- meet the proposed DSM-5 frequency criteria (e.g., ≥5 days of NSSI behaviors in the past year)
Exclusion criteria
- diagnosis of borderline personality disorder, major depressive disorder, other
- psychiatric disorders, etc.
- high suicidal risk
- recent use of medications that can affect neural activity
- have received or are receiving Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) other treatment for emotional problems within the past 6 months
- have a contraindication to MRI scanning (e.g., metal implants, claustrophobia or other conditions that make them inappropriate for MRI scanning)
Criteria are shown verbatim from the registry (in English). Final eligibility is always assessed by the study center.
Healthy volunteers: Yes
Study design
- Observational model
- Case-control
Study locations
China · 1 center
- Sichuan Provincial Center for Mental Health, Sichuan Provincial People's Hospital, Univers — Chengdu
Identifiers
NCT: NCT05968313 · BAM_lab_NSSI_02