Evidence map›Paper›PMID 38243201›Full record

ArticleBMC psychiatry2024

Evaluating the effect of action-like video game play and of casual video game play on anxiety in adolescents with elevated anxiety: protocol for a multi-center, parallel group, assessor-blind, randomized controlled trial.

Naïma Gradi, Adrien Chopin, Daphné Bavelier, Tomer Shechner, Swann Pichon

Erratum issued Registry-linked trialOpen access · goldAbstract readClinical Trial Protocol
In one paragraph

Article in BMC psychiatry, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. An erratum has been issued. It is linked to trial NCT05923944 (Evaluating the Effect of Gamified Cognitive Training and of Casual Videogame Play on Anxiety in Adolescents), which is not on this map. Cited by 2 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
2citing papers in PubMed
2.6field-weighted citation impact, top 13% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

NCT05923944 narecruitingnot on this map

Evaluating the Effect of Gamified Cognitive Training and of Casual Videogame Play on Anxiety in Adolescents: Protocol for a Randomized Controlled Trial

TypeinterventionalSponsorSchool of Health Sciences GenevaRan2024 to 2026Enrolled150ConditionsAnxiety, Anxiety Disorders and SymptomsArmsEco-Rescue, Bejelewed 3
3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

2 citing papers in PubMed, 4 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Article
  2. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

5 authors at 3 institutions in 3 countries.

Naïma GradiDepartment of Psychology, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland. naima.gradi@unige.ch.
Adrien ChopinSmith Kettlewell Eye Research Institute, San Francisco, CA, USA.
Daphné BavelierDepartment of Psychology, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland. daphne.bavelier@unige.ch.
Tomer ShechnerDepartment of Psychology, University of Haifa, Haifa, Israel.
Swann PichonGeneva School of Health Sciences, Geneva, Switzerland.
University of Geneva · CHSmith-Kettlewell Eye Research Institute · USUniversity of Haifa · IL

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

backgroundAdolescence is a critical period for the onset and maintenance of anxiety disorders, which raises the importance of intervening early; one possibility of doing so is via digital interventions. Within that research field, at least two important research paths have been explored in the past years. On the one hand, the anxiolytic effect of casual video games has been tested as such gaming activity may distract away from anxious thoughts through the induction of flow and redirection of attention toward the game and thus away of anxious thoughts. On the other hand, the bidirectional link between weak attentional control and higher anxiety has led to the design of interventions aiming at improving attentional control such as working memory training studies. Taking stock that another genre of gaming, action video games, improves attentional control, game-based interventions that combines cognitive training and action-like game features would seem relevant. This three-arm randomized controlled trial aims to evaluate the feasibility and the efficacy of two video game interventions to document how each may potentially alleviate adolescent anxiety-related symptoms when deployed fully on-line.

methodsThe study aims to recruit 150 individuals, 12 to 14 years of age, with high levels of anxiety as reported by the parents' online form of the Screen for Child Anxiety Related Disorders questionnaire. This trial contrasts a child-friendly, "action-like" video game designed to improve attentional control abilities in a progressive and stepwise manner (Eco-Rescue), a casual puzzle video game selected to act as a positive distraction tool (Bejeweled) and finally a control group with no assigned training intervention to control for possible test-retest effects (No-training). Participants will be assigned randomly to one of the three study arms. They will be assessed for main (anxiety) and secondary outcomes (attentional control, affective working memory) at three time points, before training (T1), one week after the 6-week training (T2) and four months after completing the training (T3). DISCUSSION: The results will provide evidence for the feasibility and the efficacy of two online video game interventions at improving mental health and emotional well-being in adolescents with high levels of anxiety. This project will contribute unique knowledge to the field, as few studies have examined the effects of video game play in the context of digital mental health interventions for adolescents.

trial registrationThe trial is registered on ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT05923944, June 20, 2023).

Indexed as

AnxietyVideo GamesAdolescentAnxiety DisordersChildHumansMemory, Short-TermMulticenter Studies as TopicRandomized Controlled Trials as TopicAdolescentAnxietyCognitive trainingDigital mental healthEmotion regulationOnline interventionRandomized controlled trialVideo games

Identifiers

PMID38243201
PMCPMC10799487
OpenAlexW4391027258

What Socratic holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.