Abstract
Introduction
Access to treatment for trichotillomania has barriers and many people never receive evidence-based treatment. Understanding what treatments and modalities work, and how people get better through those treatments and modalities, is needed.
Methods
We include analyses of moderators of treatment outcomes and preliminary processes of change from a randomized controlled trial assessing the efficacy of a fully automated website delivering acceptance-enhanced behavior therapy (AEBT) for adults (N = 81) with trichotillomania. All participants received an eight-module website of AEBT, and assessments were completed at baseline, mid-, post-treatment, and a one-month follow-up. Using multilevel modeling, the moderation effects of baseline trichotillomania specific psychological flexibility, age, baseline and time -varying anxiety, and baseline and time varying depression were explored. Preliminary process of change using psychological flexibility was explored.
Results
Baseline trichotillomania-specific psychological flexibility is correlated with changes in symptom severity over time but not by condition. Lower trichotillomania specific psychological flexibility at baseline was associated with better outcomes. Age also moderated treatment outcomes, specifically, participants between 18 and 30 had better treatment outcomes than participants over 30 years old. Baseline anxiety correlated with symptom severity but did not moderate intervention effects. Changes in anxiety were correlated with symptom severity over time. Baseline depression was not a significant moderator. Preliminary process of change analyses suggests that changes in psychological flexibility is correlated with changes in trichotillomania symptom severity across time. This relationship did not change in strength over time and was not moderated by condition.
Conclusion
This study highlights how baseline trichotillomania specific psychological flexibility and anxiety impact changes in symptom severity and the function in a website delivered AEBT for adults with trichotillomania. Additionally, it provides preliminary support of the role of trichotillomania-specific psychological flexibility as a process of change in treatment of trichotillomania. Implications are discussed.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Alexander, J. R., Houghton, D. C., Twohig, M. P., Franklin, M. E., Saunders, S. M., Neal-Barnett, A. M., Compton, S. N., & Woods, D. W. (2017). Clarifying the relationship between Trichotillomania and anxiety. Journal of obsessive-compulsive and related disorders, 13, 30–34.
Arch, J. J., Wolitzky-Taylor, K. B., Eifert, G. H., & Craske, M. G. (2012). Longitudinal treatment mediation of traditional cognitive behavioral therapy and acceptance and commitment therapy for anxiety disorders. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 50(7–8), 469–478.
American Psychiatric Association. (2013). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders: DSM-5™ (5th ed.). American Psychiatric Publishing.
Bates, D., Maechler, M., Bolker, B., & Walker, S. (2015). Fitting Linear Mixed-Effects Models Using lme4. Journal of Statistical Software, 67(1), 1–48. https://doi.org/10.18637/jss.v067.i01
Capel, L. K., Petersen, J. M., Becker, M. R., Levin, M. L., & Twohig, M. P. (2023). Examining the efficacy and feasibility of a web-based acceptance enhanced behavior therapy for trichotillomania: A randomized waitlist-controlled trial. Journal of Obsessive-Compulsive and Related Disorders., 37, 100800.
Elliott, A. J., & Fuqua, R. W. (2002). Acceptability of treatments for trichotillomania: Effects of age and severity. Behavior Modification, 26(3), 378–399.
Flessner, C. A., Woods, D. W., Franklin, M. E., Cashin, S. E., & Keuthen, N. J. (2008). The milwaukee inventory for subtypes of trichotillomania- adult version (MIST-A): Development of an instrument for the assessment of “focused” and “automatic” hair pulling. Journal of Psychopathology Behavior and Assessment, 30, 20–30. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10862-007-9073-x
Franklin, M. E., Edson, A. L., & Freeman, J. B. (2010). Behavior therapy for pediatric trichotillomania: Exploring the effects of age on treatment outcome. Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Mental Health, 4, 1–6.
Franklin, M. E., Zagrabbe, K., & Benavides, K. L. (2011). Trichotillomania and its treatment: A review and recommendations. Expert Review of Neurotherapeutics, 11(8), 1165–1174.
Grant, J. E., Redden, S. A., Leppink, E. W., & Chamberlain, S. R. (2017a). Trichotillomania and co-occurring anxiety. Comprehensive Psychiatry, 72, 1–5.
Grant, J. E., Redden, S. A., Medeiros, G. C., Odlaug, B. L., Curley, E. E., Tavares, H., & Keuthen, N. J. (2017). Trichotillomania and its clinical relationship to depression and anxiety. International Journal of Psychiatry in Clinical Practice. https://doi.org/10.1080/13651501.2017.1314509
Grant, J. E., Dougherty, D. D., & Chamberlin, S. R. (2020). Prevalence, gender correlates, and co-morbidity of trichotillomania. Psychiatry Research. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychres.2020.112948
Haaland, A. T., Ekeland, S. O., Moen, E. M., Vogel, P. A., Haseth, S., Mellingen, K., Himle, J. A., Woods, D. W., & Hummelen, B. (2017). ACT-enhanced behavior therapy in group format for trichotillomania: An effectiveness study. Journal of Obsessive-Compulsive and Related Disorders, 12, 109–116.
Hofmann, S. G., & Hayes, S. C. (2019). The future of intervention science: Process-based therapy. Clinical Psychological Science, 7(1), 37–50.
Houghton, D. C., Compton, S. N., Twohig, M. P., Saunders, S. M., Franklin, M. E., Neal-Barnett, A. M., Ely, L., Capriotti, M. R., & Woods, D. W. (2014). Measuring the role of psychological inflexibility in Trichotillomania. Psychiatry Research, 220(1–2), 356–361. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychres.2014.08.003
Houghton, D. C., Capriotti, M. R., De Nadai, A. S., Compton, S. N., Twohig, M. P., Neal-Barnett, A. M., Saunders, S. M., Franklin, M. E., Woods, D. W. (2015). Definining treatment response in trichotillomania: A signal detection anaylsis. Journal of Anxiety Disorders, 36, 44-51, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.janxdis.2015.09.008
Houghton, D. C., Maas, J., Twohig, M. P., Saunders, S. M., Compton, S. N., Neal-Barnett, A. M., Franklin, M. E., & Woods, D. W. (2016). Comorbidity and quality of life in adults with hair pulling disorder. Psychiatry Research, 239, 12–9. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychres.2016.02.063
Hox, J. J., Moerbeek, M., & Van de Schoot, R. (2017). Multilevel analysis: Techniques and applications (3rd ed.). Taylor & Francis Group.
Keuthen, N. J., O’Sullivan, R. L., Ricciardi, J. N., Shera, D., Savage, C. R., Borgmann, A. S., Jenike, M. A., & Baer, L. (1995). The massachusetts general hospital (MGH) hairpulling scale: Development and factor analyses. Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, 64(3), 141–145. https://doi.org/10.1159/000289003
Lee, E. B., Haeger, J. A., Levin, M. E., Ong, C. W., & Twohig, M. P. (2018). Telepsychotherapy for trichotillomania: A randomized controlled trial of ACT-enhanced behavior therapy. Journal of Obsessive-Compulsive and Related Disorders, 18, 106–115. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jocrd.2018.04.003
Lee, E. B., Homan, K. J., Morrison, K. L., Ong, C. W., Levin, M. E., & Twohig, M. P. (2018b). Acceptance and commitment therapy for trichotillomania: A randomized controlled trial of adults and adolescents. Behavior Modification., 44(1), 70–91. https://doi.org/10.1177/0145445518794366
Lovibond, S. H., & Lovibond, P. F. (1995). Manual for the Depression Anxiety Stress Scales. Sydney psychology foundation.
Morris, S. H., Zickgraf, H. F., Dingfelder, H. E., & Franklin, M. E. (2013). Habit reversal training in trichotillomania: Guide for the clinician. Expert Review of Neurotherapeutics, 13(9), 1069–1077.
Ong, C. W., & Eustis, E. H. (2021). Psychological flexibility. In M. P. Twohig, M. E. Levin, & J. M. Petersen (Eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy. Oxford University Press.
Ong, C. W., Woods, D. W., Franklin, M. E., Saunders, S. M., Neal-Barnett, A. M., Compton, S. N., & Twohig, M. P. (2023). The role of psychological flexibility in acceptance-enhanced behavior therapy for trichotillomania: Moderation and mediation findings. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 164, 104302.
Osman, A., Wong, J. L., Bagge, C. L., Freedenthal, S., Gutierrez, P. M., & Lozano, G. (2012). The depression anxiety stress Scales—21 (DASS-21): Further examination of dimensions, scale reliability, and correlates. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 68(12), 1322–1338.
Petersen, J. M., Capel, L. K., Levin, M. E., & Twohig, M. P. (2022). Moderators and processes of change in a pilot randomized controlled trial of acceptance-enhanced behavior therapy for trichotillomania in adolescents. Journal of Obsessive-Compulsive and Related Disorders., 35, 100757.
R Core Team. (2022). R: A language and environment for statistical computing. R Foundation for Statistical Computing.
Tung, E. S., Flessner, C. A., Grant, J. E., & Keuthen, N. J. (2015). Predictors of life disability in trichotillomania. Comprehensive Psychiatry, 56, 239–244.
Twohig, M. P., Petersen, J. M., Fruge, J., Ong, C. W., Barney, J. L., Krafft, J., Lee, E. B., & Levin, M. E. (2021). A Pilot randomized controlled trial of online delivered ACT-enhanced behavior therapy for trichotillomania in adolescents. Cognitive and Behavioral Practice., 28(4), 653–668. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cbpra.2021.01.004
Woods, D. W., & Twohig, M. P. (2023). Trichotillomania: An ACT-enhanced Behavior Therapy Approach Therapist Guide (2nd ed.). Oxford University Press.
Woods, D. W., Ely, L. J., Bauer, C. C., Twohig, M. P., Saunders, S. M., Compton, S. N., Espil, F. M., Neal-Barnett, A., Alexander, J. R., Walther, M. R., & Cahill, S. P. (2022). Acceptance-enhanced behavior therapy for trichotillomania in adults: A randomized clinical trial. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 158, 104187.
Funding
This project was supported with funding from the Huntsman Foundation.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Conflict of Interest
Leila K. Capel, Julie M. Petersen, and Michael E. Levin declare no conflicts of interest. Michael P. Twohig notes his role as author of several books in this area and his role as the Huntsman Foundation award recipient.
Informed consent
Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.
Research Involving Human and Animal Rights
No animal studies were carried out by the authors for this article.
Additional information
Publisher's Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.
About this article
Cite this article
Capel, L.K., Petersen, J.M., Levin, M.E. et al. Moderators and Preliminary Processes of Change in a Randomized Controlled Trial of a Fully Automated, Website Delivering AEBT for Adults with Trichotillomania. Cogn Ther Res 48, 107–118 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10608-023-10418-0
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10608-023-10418-0