Trustees of Dartmouth College

The overall objective of this COBRE pilot project is to enhance the design of a 3-arm cluster randomized trial that will test the efficacy and mechanism of effect of the MyMammogram DA with or without a provider communication intervention. This will be accomplished through two aims: (1) Refine, with community partner input, a clinical trial protocol to optimize engagement among patients and primary care providers (PCPs) practicing in rural settings. In consultation with patients, PCPs, and informatics experts, the study team will refine site selection, randomization, patient and PCP recruitment, and data collection protocols to meet the needs of the rural health care delivery system and participants. The result of this aim will be a modified protocol and intervention strategy that is acceptable to partners. (2) Adapt and test trial and intervention implementation features to achieve protocol acceptance and adherence. The investigators will pilot the adapted three-arm randomized trial protocol in rural primary care settings that compares the MyMammogram DA with or without a risk summary provided to the PCP pre-visit, relative to usual care. Implementing the trial in two phases (n=15 each) will systematically identify barriers and facilitators to trial participation to refine protocols. Participants will receive acceptability surveys and investigators will conduct qualitative interviews with patients and PCPs to understand experiences with trial implementation from multiple perspectives.

In this experiment, the investigators study the brain pathways underlying several promising context interventions that enhance the strength of placebo effects. Specifically, the investigators examine the separate and joint effects of two of the most powerful context interventions: Social modeling-observing someone else being effectively treated-and prior treatment success or failure experiences. Participants will be randomized into 4 groups (Social modeling: observed success vs. observed failure and Conditioning: experienced success vs. experienced failure). The objectives are to investigate the placebo effect on pain relief and aversive image stimuli between and within-subjects. Each group will undergo a behavioral induction phase, fMRI placebo test phase, and an identical 3-month follow up fMRI placebo test phase. Follow-up assessment will provide some of the first evidence on predictors of the durability of placebo and context interventions.

This study examines the effects of placebo suggestions tailored to match or mismatch individual participants' motivational styles-an issue of person-situation 'fit' with important effects in public health settings, but which has been ignored in past research.