Attention Bias Modification, Attention Control and Psychoeducation for Irritability in Children and Adolescents
- Conditions
- Irritability
- Interventions
- Other: Attention bias modification trainingOther: Attention Control TrainingOther: Psychoeducation
- Registration Number
- NCT03238118
- Lead Sponsor
- Hospital de Clinicas de Porto Alegre
- Brief Summary
The aim of this project is to evaluate the efficacy of an attention bias modification training if compared to an attention control and psychoeducation to reduce the symptoms of irritability among children with high levels of irritability.
- Detailed Description
Children with high levels of irritability have showed significant bias towards threatening faces. Computerized training programs have showed to be able to successfully modify these biases in children with mood and anxiety disorders. Of particular importance, a study examined the effects of attention training towards positive stimuli on attention biases and anxiety symptoms in pediatric anxiety disorders. In the attention-towards-positive condition, children searched picture arrays for a happy face amongst angry faces. In the attention-training control condition, children searched for a bird amongst flowers. This study showed significantly greater reductions in clinician-rated diagnostic severity and number of diagnoses of anxiety with that training. However, no study has investigated the role of these training in children and adolescents with high levels of irritability The present project, aims to examine the effects of the attention bias modification training and compare to attention-training control condition and psychoeducation in children with high levels of irritability.
Recruitment & Eligibility
- Status
- COMPLETED
- Sex
- All
- Target Recruitment
- 140
- children aged 9 to 12 years with symptoms of irritability who scored above the 90% percentile for their existing symptoms on Affective Reactivity Index
- a diagnosis of intellectual disability.
Study & Design
- Study Type
- INTERVENTIONAL
- Study Design
- PARALLEL
- Arm && Interventions
Group Intervention Description Attention Control Training Psychoeducation For attention-training-control, stimuli are 20 colour-pictures of individual birds and flowers used in prior visual-search tasks with children. Children mouse-clicked on the bird presented amongst flowers as quickly and accurately as possible. Other task parameters were similar to the attention-toward-positive task (160 training trials). No performance feedback is given in either condition. Attention bias modification training Attention bias modification training For attention-toward-positive, stimuli are colour-pictures of 16 angry and 16 happy faces (half female). Each happy face is presented 10 times, and each angry face presented 80 times across trials, balanced across the different positions in the 3 × 3 matrix. This yielded 160 training trials (two blocks of 80 trials). Children had to mouse-click on the happy face within the 3 × 3 matrix of angry faces as quickly and as accurately as possible. The matrix disappeared after the child mouse-clicked on the correct face and the next trial began. Psychoeducation Psychoeducation Psychoeducation is an intervention that is characterized by informing the participant of their irritability symptoms. The goal is to teach participants how to understand their symptoms, explain their treatment modalities, recognize signs that may lead to a possible crisis, and provide tips and strategies on how to deal with irritability. Attention bias modification training Psychoeducation For attention-toward-positive, stimuli are colour-pictures of 16 angry and 16 happy faces (half female). Each happy face is presented 10 times, and each angry face presented 80 times across trials, balanced across the different positions in the 3 × 3 matrix. This yielded 160 training trials (two blocks of 80 trials). Children had to mouse-click on the happy face within the 3 × 3 matrix of angry faces as quickly and as accurately as possible. The matrix disappeared after the child mouse-clicked on the correct face and the next trial began. Attention Control Training Attention Control Training For attention-training-control, stimuli are 20 colour-pictures of individual birds and flowers used in prior visual-search tasks with children. Children mouse-clicked on the bird presented amongst flowers as quickly and accurately as possible. Other task parameters were similar to the attention-toward-positive task (160 training trials). No performance feedback is given in either condition.
- Primary Outcome Measures
Name Time Method Mean change from baseline to endpoint in the "Irritability Subscale" of The Multidimensional Assessment of Preschool Disruptive Behavior (mean values) two weeks The Multidimensional Assessment of Preschool Disruptive Behavior is a developmentally sensitive questionnaire, which is used to assess temper loss in terms of tantrum features and anger regulation. A total of 39 items are rated in terms of frequency over the past month: 0 = Never in the past month; 1 = Rarely (less than weekly); 2 = Some days (1-3 days per week); 3 = Most days (4-6 days); 4 = Daily; and 5 = Multiple times per day.
- Secondary Outcome Measures
Name Time Method Mean change from baseline to endpoint in the Affective Reactivity Index two weeks The Affective Reactivity individual items are scored 0,1, 2, and only the first six items are summed to form the total score - the seventh is an impairment item and it is analyzed separately.
Mean change from baseline to endpoint in The Extended Strengths and Weaknesses Assessment of Normal Behavior two weeks The Extended Strengths and Weaknesses Assessment of Normal Behavior has been developed in order to capture variance associated with both strengths and weaknesses to generate a near-normal distribution in epidemiological samples. For each of the 30 items, evaluators assess how well the child handles emotions and behaves compared to other children of the same age - far below average, below average, slightly below average, about average, slightly above average, above average and far above average.
Trial Locations
- Locations (1)
Paola Paganella Laporte
🇧🇷Porto Alegre, RIO Grande DO SUL, Brazil