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One-Day remote therapy aims to conquer Kids' fear of needles

NCT ID NCT04972006

Symptom relief Sponsor: Boston University Charles River Campus Source: ClinicalTrials.gov ↗

What the study statuses mean

This study's is highlighted.

Recruitment status, easiest to join first

Recruiting now
This trial is taking on new participants right now.
Not yet recruiting
Registered, but not yet taking participants.
By invitation only
Not open to general applications. Only people the study team invites can take part.
Paused
Paused for now. It may or may not start again.
Ongoing
Running, but no longer taking on new participants.
Completed This study
The trial has finished. Results may not be published yet.
Stopped early
Stopped early, before it reached the end. That can be for many reasons, including safety.
Cancelled
Cancelled before anyone took part.

Expanded access (not trials)

Expanded access
Not a trial. This treatment can be requested outside a study, case by case, for people who qualify.
Expanded access (paused)
Not a trial. The treatment can normally be requested outside a study, but is unavailable right now.
Expanded access (ended)
Not a trial. The treatment could once be requested outside a study, but no longer can.
Approved
The treatment has been approved, so it is available normally rather than through this programme.

When the status isn't known

Details not published
The full record has not been published yet, so there is little to show here.
Status unknown
This status has not been confirmed recently, so it may be out of date.

First seen Aug 20, 2026 · Last updated Aug 21, 2026 · Updated 1 time

Summary

This study tests whether a short, remote treatment can help children and teens aged 8 to 16 who have a clinical fear of injections. The intervention includes education about anxiety and a 3-4 hour session of gradual exposure to injection-related fears. Researchers will also evaluate new measures of cognitive biases related to injection fear. The goal is to see if this brief approach is acceptable, feasible, and effective in reducing fear and avoidance.

What this could mean

Our plain-language read of the trial. This is informational only, not medical advice or a prediction.

Active substance
A brief, remote behavioral intervention combining education about anxiety with graduated exposure to injection fear.
What this could lead to
If effective, this could offer a convenient, one-day remote treatment to help young people overcome injection phobia, reducing distress and improving healthcare experiences.
What could go wrong
The trial is small and early, so results may not apply broadly. The treatment involves facing fears, which can be temporarily uncomfortable, and its long-term benefits are not yet established.

This is an AI summary of the original study and may miss details. Read our disclaimer.

Study facts

What this study's own registry entry says, in plain language.

Phase

Not a phased trial

Phase numbers describe drug development. The registry uses this when they do not apply, as it does for trials of devices, procedures or behaviour changes, and for observational studies.

Participants

16 people

The number who actually took part.

Started

Jul 2021

Finished

Jun 2022

Lead sponsor

Other sponsor

The registry's catch-all category, for sponsors it does not file as a company, a government agency, or a research network.

Who can take part

This study's own entry requirements. Only the study team can say for certain whether you qualify.

Ages

8 to 16 years

Sex

Anyone

Healthy volunteers

Not accepted

This study is not open to healthy volunteers. The entry requirements below say who it is open to.

Show the full entry requirements

Copied word for word from the study's registry entry, so the wording is the study team's rather than ours.

Inclusion Criteria: * A clinical diagnosis of specific phobia- blood, injection-injury subtype * Age between 8 and 16 * Spoken and reading fluency in English * Third grade reading ability * Parental availability to participate in treatment study sessions * Parental spoken and reading fluency in English. Exclusion Criteria: * A comorbid, previously assigned diagnosis of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), major depressive disorder (MDD), generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) OR significant parental endorsement of inattentiveness, hyperactivity, prolonged depressed mood, or pervasive generalized worries that are interfering with the child's life at the phone screen level * A diagnosed learning disorder in reading or information processing * Parent-reported child unwillingness or lack of ability to participate in cognitive bias tasks (e.g., looking at needle or injection-related imagery, reading basic stories about needles or blood draws) * Previous and/or concurrent participation in CBT-based, exposure therapy for the fear of injections.

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Conditions

The condition(s) this trial relates to.

specific phobia

As listed by the trial registrant

The condition terms exactly as the trial's registrant entered them.

Anxiety disorder of childhood

Contacts and locations

Locations

  • Boston University Charles River Campus

    Boston, Massachusetts, 02215, United States

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