Inflammation and Medical Provider Attitudes, Cognition, and Treatment Decisions Study

Conditions

• Decision-Making
• Patient Care
• Treatment Decisions

Eligibility Criteria

Sex

ALL

Age

18 Years - N/A

Healthy Volunteers

Accepted

Interventions

• Influenza vaccine — BIOLOGICAL
  A single administration of a seasonal trivalent cell-based influenza vaccine delivered by injection into the arm at the end of the first study session.
• Placebo — OTHER
  Control group will receive a saline placebo injection at the end of Session 1

Study Details

This is a randomized, double-blind clinical trial involving emergency medicine and internal medicine healthcare providers as participants. The intervention involves the administration of the seasonal influenza vaccine or a saline placebo; this protocol is used in psychoneuro-immunology to simulate a state of mild illness. The primary aim is to examine whether acute inflammation induced by receiving the vaccine affects decision-making on standardized psychological reaction time tasks and questionnaires. Participants attend two laboratory sessions on consecutive days, receive either a seasonal influenza vaccine or a saline placebo at the first session, provide blood samples to measure inflammatory cytokines, and complete a series of standardized assessments of medical decision-making and social attitudes. Participants who received the placebo during the first session will receive the vaccine during the second session. Overall, the study is designed to examine how adverse provider conditions particularly acute inflammation, burnout, and concerns about one's own health affect provider judgments and healthcare-related decision-making. The primary hypothesis is that providers experiencing greater adverse conditions at the time of research participation would have altered decision-making compared to those experiencing fewer adverse conditions.

Key Dates

First listed

Sep 25, 2026

Start date

Sep 30, 2026

Status verified

Sep 2026

Primary completion

Oct 31, 2027

Completion

Dec 31, 2027

Study Design

Enrollment

210 participants (estimated)

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Intervention model

PARALLEL

Primary purpose

HEALTH_SERVICES_RESEARCH

Arms

• Experimental: Influenza Vaccine Injection
  Receives the influenza vaccine at the end of Session 1
• Placebo Comparator: Placebo Injection
  Receives a saline placebo injection at the end of Session 1

Primary Outcome Measure

Testing Automatic Judgments: "Implicit Association Test" [ Time Frame: 2 days ]

Central Contacts

• Anastasia Makhanova, PhD
  479-575-8798
  [email protected]

Locations (3)

Find similar trials in Fayetteville, AR