The Adler Center of Child Development and Psychopathology, Department of Psychology, Tel Aviv University, Israel.
J Child Psychol Psychiatry. 2011 Aug;52(8):861-9. doi: 10.1111/j.1469-7610.2011.02368.x. Epub 2011 Jan 19.
Threat-related attention biases have been implicated in the etiology and maintenance of anxiety disorders. As a result, attention bias modification (ABM) protocols have been employed as treatments for anxious adults. However, they have yet to emerge for children. A randomized, double-blind placebo-controlled trial was conducted to examine the efficacy of an ABM protocol designed to facilitate attention disengagement from threats, thereby reducing anxiety and stress vulnerability in children.
Participants were 34 chronically high-anxious 10-year-olds. An emotional attention spatial cueing task was used. In the ABM condition (n=18), threat faces never cued the targets' locations, such that the valid-invalid ratio was 0%/100%, respectively. The valid-invalid ratio on neutral cue trials was 25%/75%, respectively. In the control condition, the valid-invalid ratio was 25%/75% for both neutral and threat faces. Anxiety and depression were measured pre- and post-training and pre- and post-stress induction.
ABM facilitated attention disengagement from threat. In response to the stressor task, children in the ABM condition reported less state anxiety relative to controls.
Computerized attention training procedures may be beneficial for reducing stress vulnerability in anxious children.
与威胁相关的注意力偏差与焦虑障碍的病因和维持有关。因此，注意偏差修正（ABM）方案已被用作治疗焦虑成年患者的方法。然而，它们尚未应用于儿童。本研究进行了一项随机、双盲、安慰剂对照试验，以检验旨在促进注意力从威胁中解脱的 ABM 方案的疗效，从而降低儿童的焦虑和应激易感性。
参与者为 34 名慢性高焦虑的 10 岁儿童。使用了情感注意空间线索任务。在 ABM 条件（n=18）下，威胁面孔从不提示目标的位置，因此有效-无效比分别为 0%/100%。中性线索试验的有效-无效比分别为 25%/75%。在对照条件下，中性和威胁面孔的有效-无效比均为 25%/75%。在训练前、训练后、应激诱导前和应激诱导后测量了焦虑和抑郁。
ABM 促进了对威胁的注意力脱离。在应激任务的反应中，ABM 组的儿童报告的状态焦虑比对照组少。
计算机化的注意力训练程序可能有益于减少焦虑儿童的应激易感性。
