Effectiveness of a Short Computer-based Emotion Recognition Training in Different Patient Groups

Prof. Christina Stadler

Status: Unknown

Conditions: Autism Spectrum Disorder; Conduct Disorder

Treatments: Behavioral: Emotionen Verstehen und Ausdrücken (E.V.A.)

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: NETWORK

Identifiers

NCT04845243

EmoRecTraining_EVA

Details and patient eligibility

About

Emotion recognition and regulation are necessary skills for social interaction. Disrupted development of these processes severely interferes with socio-emotional development. These difficulties are commonly reported in patients with Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD) or Conduct Disorder (CD), with the subsequent social/interpersonal difficulties. The available evidence suggest that impaired emotion regulation processes might underlie the aggressive behaviours frequently observed in both disorders. However, no study has yet investigated the presence of disorder-specific characteristics on emotion processing between these two disorders. Different impaired emotion recognition difficulties may underlie the reported emotion dysregulation. A practical implication of this is that given that both disorders have shown difficulties during emotion recognition processes, a short, computer-based intervention to improve emotion recognition might benefit both cases, even though their aetiologies might differ.

Full description

For ASD patients, studies training facial emotion recognition have focused on increasing the active attention to the eye region, re-directing attention to facial features to facilitate facial emotion recognition. Evidence shows positive results using computer-based emotion recognition training programs with young children and adolescents with ASD. It has also been recently suggested that emotion recognition training may be a suitable intervention for patients with CD. This would be supported by some preliminary evidence in patients with severe behavioural problems, young offenders and patients with CD + CU Traits. The overall goal of this project is to investigate the compared impact of an emotion recognition training in patients with ASD or CD. This goal can be subdivided into three separate subgoals: a) identify whether the training program is effective; b) identify whether the training program has differentiated or comparable effects between both patients groups and c) investigate individual characteristics that may help identify those individuals who would benefit most from the intervention. This information is crucial to inform the design of more efficient treatments to differentially address the specific deficits associated to the disorders.

Enrollment: 80 estimated patients

Sex: All

Ages: 10 to 18 years old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Diagnosis: ASD or CD
• German speaking
• IQ > 70
• Age: 10-18

Exclusion criteria

• Comorbid Anxiety or Depressive disorder diagnosis
• IQ < 70
• Insufficient German language skills
• Severe developmental disorders

Trial design

Primary purpose: Treatment

Allocation: N/A

Interventional model: Single Group Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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80 participants in 1 patient group

Emotion recognition training

Other group

Description:

All participants have to complete the online emotion recognition training E.V.A. as well as the pre- and post training tasks: GERT and social decision making task.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Emotionen Verstehen und Ausdrücken (E.V.A.)