Zhang Melvyn, Vallabhajosyula Ranganath, Fung Daniel
Family Medicine and Primary Care, Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, Singapore.
Anatomy, Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, Singapore.
JMIR Res Protoc. 2020 Dec 23;9(12):e24078. doi: 10.2196/24078.
Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a common neurodevelopmental disorder with a worldwide prevalence rate of 5%. Individuals with ADHD often tend to have difficulties with emotional regulation. The advances in experimental psychology have led to the discovery of emotional biases. Targeting emotional biases could potentially help improve the core symptoms of irritability and short-temperedness among these individuals. Emotional biases refer to the preferential allocation of attention toward emotional stimuli. A recent study reported the presence of emotional biases among individuals with ADHD when they compared individuals with ADHD with those without. Gamification technologies have been explored to help diminish the repetitiveness of the task and increase the intrinsic motivation to train. These inconsistent findings of the impact of gaming on the effectiveness of mobile interventions call for further work to better understand the needs of patients (users) and health care professionals.
The aim of this research study is to collate health care professionals' perspectives on the limitations of the existing task, and to determine if gamification elements could be incorporated, to refine the conventional intervention.
A qualitative research approach, that of a focus group, will be used. Health care professionals from the Department of Development Psychiatry, Institute of Mental Health, Singapore will be invited to participate in this qualitative research. During the focus group, participants are to comment on the limitations of the existing emotional bias intervention; recommend strategies to improve the intervention; and provide their perspectives pertaining to the use of gamification to improve the intervention.
We expect that the study will be completed in 12 months from the publication of this protocol.
To our best knowledge, this is perhaps one of the only few studies that have attempted to explore emotional biases among adolescents with ADHD.
INTERNATIONAL REGISTERED REPORT IDENTIFIER (IRRID): PRR1-10.2196/24078.
注意力缺陷多动障碍（ADHD）是一种常见的神经发育障碍，全球患病率为5%。患有ADHD的个体往往在情绪调节方面存在困难。实验心理学的进展导致了情绪偏差的发现。针对情绪偏差可能有助于改善这些个体易怒和脾气暴躁的核心症状。情绪偏差是指注意力对情绪刺激的优先分配。最近一项研究在比较患有ADHD的个体和未患ADHD的个体时，报告了患有ADHD的个体中存在情绪偏差。游戏化技术已被探索用于减少任务的重复性并增加训练的内在动力。关于游戏对移动干预效果影响的这些不一致的发现需要进一步研究，以更好地了解患者（用户）和医疗保健专业人员的需求。
本研究的目的是整理医疗保健专业人员对现有任务局限性的看法，并确定是否可以纳入游戏化元素以改进传统干预措施。
将采用焦点小组这种定性研究方法。将邀请新加坡心理健康研究所发育精神病学系的医疗保健专业人员参与这项定性研究。在焦点小组中，参与者要对现有情绪偏差干预措施的局限性发表评论；推荐改进干预措施的策略；并提供他们对使用游戏化来改进干预措施的看法。
我们预计该研究将在本方案发表后的12个月内完成。
据我们所知，这可能是为数不多的试图探索患有ADHD的青少年中情绪偏差的研究之一。
国际注册报告识别码（IRRID）：PRR1-10.2196/24078。
