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Environmental IllnessTOSINCT02069002

Comparing Interventions for Indoor Air -Related Functional Symptoms

A study testing Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Applied relaxation group therapy and Information session (psychoeducation) in people with Environmental Illness and Functional Symptoms, run by Finnish Institute of Occupational Health at 1 site in Finland.

Completed

Finished. The study has ended and is not enrolling. Results may be posted on the official record.

Official record
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Trial summary

The aim of the current study is to compare the effictiveness of three different psychosocial therapies for treating functional disorders caused by indoor air problems. Read more about this study

Who is it for?
Ages 25 to 58 years
Conditions the study is for
Environmental Illness, Functional Symptoms
What is being tested?
Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Applied relaxation group therapy and Information session (psychoeducation)
Could I receive a placebo?
No, everyone receives an active treatment
How many people
75 participants
Where
1 siteFinland
Study dates
Feb 2014to 30 Jul 2018
Phase
Interventional
Are there results?
None posted in the registry

Key requirements

Who can take part, as listed by the sponsor. Only the study team can confirm whether you are eligible, so take this list to your doctor.

  • Ages 25 to 58 years
  • All sexes
  • No healthy volunteers
  • Adult

Who may be able to join

  • Self-assessed work ability not more than 7 (on a scale 0-10, compared to lifetime best) (removed, see below)
  • Employed minimum three (3) or more years
  • Symptoms related to work environment indoor air (non-industrial workplaces)
  • Respiratory symptoms related to indoor air
  • And symptoms involve more than one other organ system
  • Symptoms onset maximum three years before the study
Show all 11Show fewer
  • Symptoms are recurrent
  • Symptoms appear more than one (1) environment or continue after repairs environmental exposure(s)
  • No single widely acceptable test of organ system function can explain the symptoms (symptoms are medically unexplained)
  • Minimum of one sick leave due to indoor air symptoms during the preceding half year
  • Fluent Finnish (write/read/speak) (due the interventions)

Who cannot join

  • six (6) months or more sick leave sick leaves due to indoor air symptoms during the preceding two years and currently unable to work
  • Planned changes in the work (for example retirement, study free period, pregnancy etc.) during the study
  • An acute, untreated medical disorder or illnesses:
  • Somatic disease that explains the symptoms
  • An acute, untreated mental disorder (depression, bipolar disorder, psychotic disorders, obsessive-compulsive disorder, eating disorders, personality disorders)
  • Abuse of narcotics or alcohol or (non-prescribed) medicine
Show all 11Show fewer
  • Developmental disorders
  • Psychotherapy (current or has ended preceding two years)
  • No inform consent
  • Other: Patient refusal; not actively participating working life (retired or unemployed)
  • Based on a steering group´s advice and agreement (10.10.2014), inclusion criteria (Self-assessed work ability not more than 7, on a scale 0-10, compared to lifetime best) was removed. Recruitment continues without this question as an inclusion criteria.

Trial locations and contacts

1 site in 1 country.

Finland1 site
  • Finnish Institute of Occupational Health (Finland)

    Helsinki, Uusimaa, 00250

Other trials in Finland

About this study

Official title: Psychosocial Interventions for Indoor Air -Related Functional Symptoms - Randomized Controlled Trial (RCT)

The aim of the current study is to compare the effictiveness of three different psychosocial therapies for treating functional disorders caused by indoor air problems.

Read the detailed description

Indoor air -related respiratory and other multiple organ symptoms are common in work environments in Finland. Symptoms effect on well-being and quality of life and may lead to impaired social and cognitive functioning and decreased work ability. All indoor air -related conditions are not explained by underlying physical factors and remain medically unexplained. Functional disorders are conditions where patients complain of multiple medically unexplained physical symptoms or physical problems don´t correlate with symptom severity. Indoor air -related symptoms and functional disorders are strongly associated to each other but there are no well-established diagnostic criteria for the condition . So far, there is no available treatment program to the indoor air -related symptoms to offer in primary or occupational health care services in Finland.

In randomized controlled trials, cognitive behavioral treatment has shown to be effective for patients suffering from functional disorders. In addition, a relaxation technique entitled as applied relaxation (Tuomisto \& al, 1996) have shown to been shown to been effective to treat different kind of functional problems.

There are no published trials on treatment for individuals of indoor air related symptomatology. The present study is designed as a pragmatic trial to investigate the effect of three different treatment programs as compared to treatment as usual (TAU) for indoor air- related problems in order to improve the (1) work capacity and (2) well-being. A secondary aim of the study is to identify psychological factors affecting the patients' response to the treatment.

The patients are recruited from occupational health care services to establish and to evaluate the efficacy and usability of the treatment procedures. Participants will first undergo baseline assessment including medical examination of the respiratory symptoms. Then they are randomized to one of the study groups: TAU or one of the intervention groups. All study patients receive TAU at occupational health care services for their medical problems during the study. Patients randomized to the study groups receive also the intervention with TAU.

Being tested
Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Applied relaxation group therapy, Information session (psychoeducation)
Keywords
Indoor Air, Medically unexplained symptoms, Randomized controlled trial, Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy, Applied relaxation
Medical subject headings
Environmental Illness, Medically Unexplained Symptoms

What participants receive

What participants receive. In a randomised study each person is assigned to one group by chance.

  • Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT)Behavioural

  • Applied relaxation group therapyBehavioural

  • Information session (psychoeducation)Behavioural

Study groups in NCT02069002
Study groupRoleWhat they receive
Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT)ExperimentalThere will be ten (10) manualized session, fist 90 minutes and nine (9) 45-minute individual sessions conducted at weekly intervals, last two sessions 2 weeks intervals. One booster session will be conducted three months after the treatment. Sessions include psychoeducation about indoor air related symptoms and personal health behavior factors integrated on patients individual symptomatology, cognitive restructuring, behavioral experiments of patients health promoting behavior, imagery rescripting and relapse prevention. Intervention: Behavioral: Psychotherapy (CBT)
Receives: Behavioral: Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
Applied relaxation group therapyExperimentalThere will be seven (7) manualized session, first 120 minutes and six (6) 90-minute group sessions conducted at weekly intervals, last two sessions 2 weeks intervals. One booster session will be conducted three months after treatment. Sessions include information about indoor air related symptoms, behavioral training and experiments focusing on applied relaxation technique and relapse prevention. Intervention: Behavioral: group therapy (ART) NB: The Applied Relaxation group Therapy won´t be carried out due to slow and prolonged recruiting process (A steering group agreement 4/2015 and the Ethics Committee approval 5/2015 for the change of the study plan).
Receives: Behavioral: Applied relaxation group therapy
Information session (psychoeducation)ExperimentalThere will be one (1) manualized 90-minute individual session. The session includes information about indoor air related symptoms and factors affecting individual health behavior. Intervention: Information session (psychoeducation)
Receives: Behavioral: Information session (psychoeducation)

What is being measured

The primary outcome is the main question the study is designed to answer.

  1. 15D - instrument

    The health-related quality of life (HRQoL) instrument (Sintonen, 2001)

    Measured: baseline, 3, 6 and 12 months from the baseline

Secondary outcomes (11)
  1. • Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD-7)

    Self-report measure that assesses anxiety symptoms

    Measured: baseline, 3, 6 and 12 months from the baseline

  2. Insomnia Severity Index (ISI)

    Self-report measure that assesses insomnia severity

    Measured: baseline, 3, 6 and 12 months from the baseline

  3. The Symptom checkList-90 (SCL-90)

    Self-report measure that assesses general psychological and somatic symptoms and severity

    Measured: baseline, 6 and 12 months from the baseline

  4. The Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9)

    Self-report measure that assesses depressive symptoms

    Measured: baseline, 3, 6 and 12 months from the baseline

  5. Visual Analogue Scale (VAS)

    Self-report measure that assesses respiratory symptom severity

    Measured: baseline, 3, 6 and 12 months from the baseline

  6. The Acceptance and Action Questionnaire-2 (AAQ-2)

    Self-report measure focuses on experiential avoidance and psychological inflexibility

    Measured: baseline, 3, 6 and 12 months from the baseline

  7. Illness Worry Scale (IWS)

    Self-report measure that focuses on illness worries and attitudes towards illness

    Measured: baseline, 3, 6 and 12 months from the baseline

  8. Penn State Worry Questionnaire (PSWQ)

    Self-report measure that focuses on mourning and continuous worrying toughs

    Measured: baseline, 3, 6 and 12 months from the baseline

  9. Need for Recovery (NRF)

    Self-report measure that focuses on time needed on the recovery after work day

    Measured: baseline, 3, 6 and 12 months from the baseline

  10. Strategy and Attribution Questionnaire (SAQ)

    Self-report measure focuses on personal attribute strategies.

    Measured: baseline, 6 and 12 months from the baseline

  11. Self-assessed work ability

    Self-assessed work ability (on a scale 0-10) (Tuomi \& al. 1998)

    Measured: baseline, 3, 6 and 12 months from the baseline

Timeline

From the start of the study to its completion; the mark is today. Estimated dates are the sponsor’s plan.

  1. First posted21 Feb 2014 (estimated)
  2. Study startFeb 2014
  3. Primary completion29 Jul 2018
  4. Study completion30 Jul 2018

Resources

More details

For doctors and researchers: how the study is designed, who runs it, and its registry IDs.

Study design
Study type
Interventional
Phase
Phase N/A
Primary purpose
Treatment
Allocation
Randomised
Intervention model
Parallel groups
Masking
None (open label)
Enrolment
75 participants (actual)
IDs, dates and publications
ClinicalTrials.gov ID
NCT02069002
Sponsor's protocol ID
TSR113076
Other IDs
TTL338270202
Acronym
TOSI
Status last verified
Feb 2017
First submitted
20 Feb 2014
Last updated
7 Aug 2018
Results posted
No
Data monitoring committee
No

Publications

  • Sintonen H. The 15D instrument of health-related quality of life: properties and applications. Ann Med. 2001 Jul;33(5):328-36. doi: 10.3109/07853890109002086.

    PubMed 11491191
  • Tuomi T Ilmarinen J, Jahkola A, Katajarinne l, Tulkki A (1998) Work ability index. Finnish Institute of Occupational Health, Helsinki.

  • Tuomisto MT, Lappalainen R, Tuomisto T, Timonen T. [Applied relaxation in psychiatry and behavioral therapy]. Duodecim. 1996;112(11):960-7. No abstract available. Finnish.

    PubMed 10592988
  • Selinheimo S, Vuokko A, Hublin C, Jarnefelt H, Karvala K, Sainio M, Suojalehto H, Paunio T. Psychosocial treatments for employees with non-specific and persistent physical symptoms associated with indoor air: A randomised controlled trial with a one-year follow-up. J Psychosom Res. 2020 Apr;131:109962. doi: 10.1016/j.jpsychores.2020.109962. Epub 2020 Feb 12.

    PubMed 32078837
  • Selinheimo S, Vuokko A, Hublin C, Jarnefelt H, Karvala K, Sainio M, Suojalehto H, Suvisaari J, Paunio T. Health-related quality among life of employees with persistent nonspecific indoor-air-associated health complaints. J Psychosom Res. 2019 Jul;122:112-120. doi: 10.1016/j.jpsychores.2019.03.181. Epub 2019 Mar 25.

    PubMed 30935665
  • Selinheimo S, Vuokko A, Sainio M, Karvala K, Suojalehto H, Jarnefelt H, Paunio T. Comparing cognitive-behavioural psychotherapy and psychoeducation for non-specific symptoms associated with indoor air: a randomised control trial protocol. BMJ Open. 2016 Jun 6;6(6):e011003. doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2015-011003.

    PubMed 27266771

Questions about this trial

What is this clinical trial studying?

A study testing Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Applied relaxation group therapy and Information session (psychoeducation) in people with Environmental Illness and Functional Symptoms, run by Finnish Institute of Occupational Health at 1 site in Finland.

The full registered description is in the About this study section and the official record.

Who may be eligible to take part?

The sponsor lists 11 inclusion and 11 exclusion criteria. Eligibility is decided by the study team after screening, so read the full criteria and contact a listed site.

Is this clinical trial currently recruiting?

The record says: finished, as of the sponsor's last update on 7 Aug 2018. Status can change between updates, so confirm with the study contact before making plans.

Where is the study taking place?

The record lists 1 site in Finland. Whether a site is taking part right now should be confirmed with that site. See every site.

What are the possible benefits and risks?

They depend on the study and the treatment, and no study can promise a benefit. The study team explains the known risks during informed consent, before anyone joins; the record itself does not list them.

Are results available for this study?

The study is completed, but results are not available in the source record. That does not mean the treatment did or did not work.

How can a doctor refer a patient or contact the research team?

The record lists no contact. The official record names the sponsor, who can be asked directly. AzTrials does not enrol participants or take referrals.

What does the primary outcome measure?

15D - instrument (time frame: baseline, 3, 6 and 12 months from the baseline). It is what the study was designed to measure, not a finding.

Where can I read the original study information?

On the ClinicalTrials.gov record for NCT02069002, which also lists 6 linked publications.

Does a listing mean the treatment is approved or proven to work?

No. A listing means the study is registered. It does not show that the treatment is safe, works, or is approved by a regulator.

How often is this information updated?

AzTrials copies changed records from ClinicalTrials.gov every night and reloads the whole registry every week. The sponsor last updated this record on 7 Aug 2018.

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