2 81 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 Van der Oord et al. 2014 The Netherlands Children with ADHD 43 82.5*b 9.79 (1.04) 8-12 years 1. Braingame Brian, training visuospatial working memory, inhibitions and cognitive flexibility (applied game). 2. Waitlist control (passive condition). 1. Twenty-five 40minute sessions over a 5-week period. 2. After 6 weeks of waiting, participants in the waitlist group also participated in the treatment. Pre, post and 9-weeks FU. Executive functioning, disruptive behaviours: inattention, hyperactivity/impulsivity, symptoms related to oppositional deviant disorder and conduct disorder; treatment with methylphenidate (subsample analysis); training performance during the sessions, adherence and dosage. Children in the training group showed more improvement than those in the waitlist group on executive functioning and parent-rated inattention and hyperactivity / impulsivity symptoms. Effects were maintained at FU. Van Houdt Et al. 2019 The Netherlands Children born very preterm and/or with extremely low birth weight with parent reported attention problems 85 57.7 10.24 (1.18) 8-12 years 1. Braingame Brian, executive functioning training (applied game). 2. Placebo training; Braingame Brian without specific training elements (active condition). 3. Waitlist control (passive condition). 1-2. Twenty-five 30–45-minute sessions over a 6-week period. 3. Children in the waitlist condition did not play Braingame Brian and were instructed to perform the same activities in the waiting period as they normally do. Pre, post and 5-months FU. Attentional functioning (efficiency of the alerting, orienting and executive attention network), behavioural and emotional functioning (i.e., emotional problems, hyperactivity, conduct problems, peer problems, prosocial behaviour), self-perceived competence; time spent gaming outside schoolhours (covariate), age (moderator); improvement during training sessions. No significant differences over time on any of the outcome measures between the three groups. Efficiency of the alerting and executive network, self-perceived competence and teacher-reported hyperactivity symptoms improved over time for participants in all three groups. Correcting for time spent gaming outside schoolhours, the analyses showed larger improvements of efficiency of the alerting network for participants in the placebo training arm than those in the EF training arm, and improvements of emotional problems over time for participants in all three groups.
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