2 111 REVIEW OF APPLIED & CASUAL GAMES FOR MENTAL HEALTH Paper Country Target group N % male Age, mean (SD) Age range Intervention arms Intervention characteristics Assessments Variables measured Findings relevant for current review Ducharme et al. 2021 USA Children and adolescents with clinically significant anger problems 40 72.5 12.75 (2.20) 10-17 years 1. Anger Control Therapy (ACT; empirically supported, manualised CBT), augmented with the RAGE-Control video game. 2. ACT augmented with a sham version of the RAGE-Control video game. Both conditions: 10 weekly onehour sessions of ACT with a parent check-in at the end of each session. Participants spent 15 minutes playing either the real of sham version of RAGE-Control after each session. Pre and post. Angry feelings, aggression, disruptive behaviours, severity of psychopathology, overall improvement, heart rate. Similar reductions in self-reported anger were reported in both conditions. ACT with RAGE-Control led to larger improvements in aggression, disruptive behaviours and severity of psychopathology relative to sham. Schuurmans et al. 2018 The Netherlands Youth with clinically elevated levels of both anxiety and externalising problems 41*a 83.8 14.00 (1.88) NA 1. Dojo (applied game) + TAU 2. TAU (active condition) 1. Eight 30minute gameplay sessions, twice a week for four weeks. 2. Treatment as recommended by participants’ clinicians. Pre, post, and 4-months FU. Anxiety symptoms, externalising problems; intellectual disability (moderator); user evaluation. Youths who played Dojo, compared with youths in the control condition, showed reductions in self-reported anxiety and externalising problems at post-test, and mentor-reported anxiety at both post-test and FU. Notes: Intervention arms and variables measured in bold are included in the forest plot. All studies used a regular randomised controlled trial (RCT) design. CBT = cognitive behavioural therapy; FU = follow-up; NA = not available and/or could not be obtained; TAU = treatment as usual. * Gender and mean age are reported for included/analysed participants (and not for the total randomised participants), with a n= 37.
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