Very Brief Exposure: Development of a Novel Exposure Modality for Social Anxiety Disorder in Transition-Age Youth

The goal of this clinical trial is to identify the circuit activations by very brief exposure (VBE) among youth with social anxiety disorder (SAD) in order to develop a novel intervention for those with SAD. The secondary objectives of this study are to measure the effect of VBE on subjective fear ratings, and participants' awareness and tolerance of the exposure stimuli. * The primary outcome of this study is the mean activation of frontostriatal and prefrontal brain regions to facial stimuli, as measured by Blood Oxygen Level Dependent (BOLD) response, in 4 regions of interest during the magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). * Another primary outcome of the study is to identify networks of regions subserving emotion regulation and attention, as measured by BOLD response of corresponding brain regions. Secondary Outcomes -The secondary outcome of this study is the fear induced by exposure to facial expression stimuli as measured by a 4-point fear scale during the functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) after each block of 10 facial expression stimuli trials. Participants will participate in an interview where they will answer questions both inside and outside of the MRI scan. Participants will be asked to rate on a scale the imagines they see while undergoing MRI scan.

NCT Number	NCT06526260
Lead Sponsor	Children's Hospital Los Angeles Collaborators: National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)
Conditions	Social Anxiety Disorder
Enrollment	80 participants
Start Date	2024-08-14
Primary Completion	2026-10-30 (estimated)
Study Completion	2026-10-30 (estimated)
Updated on ClinicalTrials.gov	2026-07-29