Music Breathing Therapy for Children With Attention-deficit Hyperactivity Disorder and Their Caregivers

The Chinese University of Hong Kong

Status: Completed

Conditions: Resilience

Treatments: Behavioral: Dyadic video-assisted gamified group-based music breathing therapy; Behavioral: Online educational modules

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT06365346

2024.075-T

Details and patient eligibility

About

This pilot randomized controlled trial aims to evaluate the feasibility (in terms of rates of recruitment, retention, and attendance), acceptability, and potential effects of the dyadic video-assisted gamified music breathing therapy on dyads' resilience, children's emotional and behavioral symptoms, parents' parenting stress, and psychological distress.

Full description

Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a prevalent neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by persistent inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity that impact various aspects of both the child's and the caregiver's functioning. Evidence shows that cultivating resilience helps children with ADHD manage emotional dysregulation and improve caregivers' psychological well-being. Music breathing therapy - an adaptation of the Bonny Method of Guided Imagery and Music (GIM) - has shown beneficial effects in enhancing resilience and alleviating psychological distress among different populations. However, it remains unclear whether it is a feasible and effective intervention to enhance the resilience of Chinese school-aged children with ADHD and their caregivers.

Aims:

• To determine the feasibility (in terms of rates of recruitment, retention, and attendance), and acceptability of the intervention
• To examine the effects of the dyadic video-assisted gamified music breathing therapy on dyads' resilience, children's emotional and behavioral symptoms, parents' parenting stress, and psychological distress.

Hypotheses:

It is hypothesized that compared with dyads in the control group, those who receive the dyadic video-assisted gamified music breathing therapy will report the following outcomes: higher levels of dyads' resilience, reduced children's emotional and behavioral symptoms, lower levels of parents' parenting stress and psychological distress at immediately post-intervention (i.e., the 6-week follow-up).

Enrollment: 48 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 7 to 12 years old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

Children

• have a clinically documented diagnosis/suspected ADHD diagnosis according to DSM-5 criteria
• aged 7 to 12 years (school age)
• can read and communicate in Chinese

Parents

• aged 21 years or above
• are the primary caregivers and living together with the child
• can read and communicate in Chinese

Exclusion criteria

Children

• have other disabling diseases (physical disability, mental disability, autism) that might limit their full participation in the study.
• have been engaged in any music intervention in the past 6 months

Parents

• are caring for more than one child with a chronic or critical illness or caring for another family member with a chronic illness
• has a diagnosed mental illness, cognitive impairment, or learning problem, and/or is taking regular psychotropic medications that might limit their full participation in the study
• have been engaged in any music intervention in the past 6 months

Trial design

Primary purpose: Supportive Care

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: Single Blind

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48 participants in 2 patient groups

Dyadic video-assisted gamified group-based music breathing therapy

Experimental group

Description:

Parent-child dyads in the intervention group will receive video-assisted gamified music breathing therapy comprising 75-minute weekly sessions (first sessions: parents only; reminding 5 sessions: parent-child dyads) delivered face-to-face by a qualified music breathing practitioner with the aid of animations (mainly for sessions involving children) for 6 weeks. The music breathing therapy comprises four breathing phases, namely "Discovery Breathing", "Triangular Breathing", "Silent Breathing", and "Music Breathing".

Treatment:

Behavioral: Dyadic video-assisted gamified group-based music breathing therapy

Online educational modules

Active Comparator group

Description:

Parent-child dyads in the control group will receive weekly online educational modules via email for 6 weeks. Such information will include definition, etiology, risk factors, signs and symptoms, and therapeutic interventions (pharmacological and nonpharmacological), its complications, and how to manage it.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Online educational modules