Study of Cognitive and Behavioural Biases in People With Idiopathic Environmental Intolerance (IEI) Versus Healthy Controls

In the main BELIEFS study (ClinicalTrials ID NCT05973214), we are investigating the efficacy of a dedicated CBT treatment program for people with IEI, and the evolution of cognitive biases before versus after the treatment program. The present BELIEFS-VS ancillary study aims to include a group of healthy volunteers in order to compare cognitive outcomes in people with IEI. This BELIEFS-VS ancillary study will enable us to better study the cognitive characteristics of IEI patients in comparison with non-affected individuals, and thus gain a better understanding of the pathophysiology of the condition. Methods and Analysis: This is an observational study. Healthy controls will be age- and gender-matched to IEI patients. The healthy controls will be invited to one in-person session in our facilities, where they will be asked to fill in some questionnaires and complete some tasks (the Affective Picture Paradigm and the Belief Updating Task). Ethics and dissemination: Ethics approval has been granted. Results from this study will be published in peer-reviewed journals and presented at international conferences.