Abstract
Objective. Digital therapeutics are considered as promising alternatives for the treatment of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). We developed a digital intervention combing multitasking and alternating attention, namely DTFAD001. DTFAD001 targets four dimensions of attention control and is designed in a video game-like format. This preliminary study aims to investigate feasibility and efficacy of DTFAD001 in children with ADHD. Methods. 20 eligible patients were randomized 1:1 to receive DTFAD001 or the control (a single task version of DTFAD001). Both groups administrated 4 weeks of intervention with 30 min per day, 5 days per week. The primary outcome was the mean change in TOVA API from pre-intervention to post-intervention. Feasibility was assessed by adverse events, patient compliance, and acceptability. Results. The patients’ mean age was 8.27 years (SD = 0.96), with 15 males and 5 females. The experimental and control group improved TOVA API by 1.38 (SD = 2.25) and 1.31 (SD = 2.46), respectively. There was high compliance with intervention and no serious adverse events were reported. Conclusions. The study verified feasibility and effectiveness of DTFAD001. Further large-scale studies are needed to reveal statistically sound effects and investigate specific benefits from multitask-alternating.
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Acknowledgements
We thank all volunteers for their participation in the study. This work was partly supported by grants from the National Key R &D Program of China (2018YFA0701400), Key R &D Program of Zhejiang (no. 2022C03011), the Chuanqi Research and Development Center of Zhejiang University, the Starry Night Science Fund of Zhejiang University Shanghai Institute for Advanced Study (SN-ZJU-SIAS-002), the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities, Project for Hangzhou Medical Disciplines of Excellence, Key Project for Hangzhou Medical Disciplines, Research Project of State Key Laboratory of Mechanical System and Vibration MSV202115.
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Wang, J. et al. (2023). A Digital Gaming Intervention Combing Multitasking and Alternating Attention for ADHD: A Preliminary Study. In: Ying, X. (eds) Human Brain and Artificial Intelligence. HBAI 2022. Communications in Computer and Information Science, vol 1692. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-8222-4_18
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-8222-4_18
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