Mental Health Care Institute GGZ Oost-Brabant, P.O. Box 3, 5427, ZG, Boekel, the Netherlands; Behavioural Science Institute, Radboud University, P.O. Box 9104, 6500, HE, Nijmegen, the Netherlands.
Mental Health Care Institute GGZ Oost-Brabant, P.O. Box 3, 5427, ZG, Boekel, the Netherlands.
J Behav Ther Exp Psychiatry. 2020 Sep;68:101548. doi: 10.1016/j.jbtep.2020.101548. Epub 2020 Mar 3.
In the clinical setting, a large proportion of children with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) experience impairing anxiety symptoms. Recently, an applied videogame called Mindlight has been developed that focuses on decreasing anxiety in children. The present study involved a randomized controlled trial (RCT) investigating the effect of Mindlight on (sub)clinical anxiety symptoms in children with an ASD.
In total, 109 children of 8-16 years old with an ASD and (sub)clinical anxiety symptoms were randomly assigned to the experimental (N = 53) or the control (N = 56) condition. Children in the experimental condition played Mindlight, children in the control condition played a commercial game (Triple Town) for 1 h per week, for six consecutive weeks. All children and parents completed assessments at baseline, post-intervention and 3-months follow-up.
Results showed no differences in decrease of child-rated anxiety symptoms between both conditions. However, the decrease of parent-rated anxiety symptoms was significantly larger in the experimental condition.
Mechanisms of change associated with treatment outcomes were not investigated in the present study. Therefore, it remains unclear which specific or non-specific factors contributed to the decrease in anxiety symptoms in both conditions.
The present study provided some preliminary evidence that video games are a promising new intervention vehicle for children with an ASD and anxiety, at least according to parents. However, further research on working mechanisms is needed, in order to specify to what extent and for which children with ASD Mindlight could be an effective anxiety treatment.
在临床环境中，很大一部分自闭症谱系障碍（ASD）儿童存在明显的焦虑症状。最近，开发了一款名为“Mindlight”的应用视频游戏，旨在减少儿童焦虑。本研究采用随机对照试验（RCT），调查“Mindlight”对 ASD 儿童（亚临床）焦虑症状的影响。
共有 109 名 8-16 岁的 ASD 儿童和（亚临床）焦虑症状被随机分为实验组（N=53）或对照组（N=56）。实验组儿童玩“Mindlight”，对照组儿童每周玩 1 小时商业游戏（Triple Town），连续 6 周。所有儿童及其家长在基线、干预后和 3 个月随访时完成评估。
结果显示，两组儿童焦虑症状的减少程度无差异。然而，实验组父母报告的焦虑症状减少幅度显著更大。
本研究未探讨与治疗结果相关的变化机制。因此，尚不清楚哪些特定或非特定因素导致了两种情况下焦虑症状的减轻。
本研究初步表明，视频游戏可能是一种有前途的自闭症儿童焦虑新干预手段，至少在父母眼中是这样。然而，需要进一步研究工作机制，以明确在何种程度上以及对于哪些 ASD 儿童，“Mindlight”可能是一种有效的焦虑治疗方法。
