Therapeutic Gaming for Adolescent Anxiety

Anxiety disorders (AD) are the most prevalent of the mental health conditions and are associated with significant and long-lasting burden of disease both for affected individuals and healthcare systems designed to support them. Despite this, barriers to traditional interventions mean less than half of adolescents experiencing ADs seek-treatment, with less than 20% of treatment-seekers ultimately receiving a scientifically validated intervention. Therapeutic games show significant potential to help reduce AD in adolescents, with some concerns remaining over their abilities to engage users, particularly over time. The chapter presents two studies relating to the development of a new mobile gamified intervention for adolescents with AD. This includes a user-feedback study on currently available games for anxiety and depression, followed by a user-feedback, acceptability, and intention-to-use study of a development version of the new intervention.

Correlation of lip profile preferences in Pakistani population; and its comparison with orthodontic norms

Objective: To determine the most desired lip profile and compare the subjective sense of aesthetics among orthodontists, general dentists and the general population. Method: The cross-sectional study was conducted at the Orthodontic Department of the Armed Forces Institute of Dentistry, Rawalpindi, Pakistan, from January 1 to February 25, 2020, and comprised different silhouettes for each gender with increasing lip procumbence from -6mm to +6mm with respect to Rickett’s E-line which were created using Photoshop CS 8.0 after cephalometric analysis of 20 cephalograms. The sample comprised an equal number of orthodontists in group A, general dentists in group B and orthodontic treatment-seekers in group C with equal representation of the two genders. Data was analysed using SPSS 24. Results: Of the 180 subjects, there were 60(33.3%) in each of the three groups, with 30(50%) males and as many females in all the groups. All the three groups preferred the average lip profile for males (p=0.018) and 2mm procumbent lips for females (p=0.008). There was significant difference of opinion between groups A and C (p=0.034) and between groups B and C (p=0.022). Conclusion: There was found to be a marked difference of opinion among the orthodontists, the general dentists and the orthodontic treatment-seekers regarding the desired lip profile. Key Words: Aesthetics, Pakistani population, Cephalometrics, Lip profile. Continuous...

Application of the eleventh revision of the International Classification of Diseases gaming disorder criteria to treatment-seeking patients: Comparison with the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders Internet gaming disorder criteria

Background and aimsThe World Health Organization included gaming disorder (GD) in the eleventh revision of International Classification of Diseases in 2019. Due to the lack of diagnostic tools for GD, a definition has not been adequately applied. Therefore, this study aimed to apply an operationalized definition of GD to treatment-seekers. The relationship between the diagnoses of GD and Internet gaming disorder (IGD) in the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders was also examined. Methods: Study participants comprised 241 treatment-seekers who had engaged in excessive gaming and experienced related problems. Psychiatrists applied the GD diagnostic criteria to the participants using a diagnostic form developed for this study. Information on gaming behavior and functional impairment was obtained through face-to-face interviews conducted by clinical psychologists. Results: In total, 78.4 and 83.0% of the participants fulfilled the GD and IGD diagnostic criteria, respectively. The sensitivity and specificity of GD diagnosis were both high when the IGD diagnosis was used as the gold standard. Participants with GD preferred online PC and console games, spent significantly more time gaming, and showed a higher level of functional impairment compared to those who did not fulfill the GD diagnostic criteria. Discussion and Conclusion: The definition of GD can be successfully applied to treatment-seekers with excessive gaming and related problems. A high concordance of GD and IGD diagnoses was found in those participants with relatively severe symptoms. The development and validation of a diagnostic tool for GD should be explored in future studies.

Baseline Drinking Patterns in Non-Treatment Seeking Problem Drinkers

Aims Natural processes of change have been documented in treatment-seekers who begin to reduce their drinking in anticipation of treatment. The study examined whether non-treatment-seeking problem drinkers would engage in drinking reduction in anticipation of participating in a research study. Methods Non-treatment-seeking problem drinkers (n = 935) were culled from five behavioral pharmacology studies. Participants reported on their alcohol use during the past 30 days using the Timeline Followback. Cluster analysis identified distinct groups/clusters based on drinking patterns over the 30-day pre-visit period. The identified clusters were compared on demographic and clinical measures. Results Three distinct clusters were identified (a) heavy-decreasing drinking group (n = 255, 27.27%); (b) a moderate-stable drinking group (n = 353, 37.75%) and (c) low-stable drinking group (n = 327, 34.97%). The three clusters differed significantly on a host of measures including pre-visit drinking (age at first drink, drinking days, drinks per week, drinks per drinking day), alcohol use severity, alcohol craving, readiness for change, depression and anxiety levels. These differences were alcohol dose-dependent such that the heavier drinking group reported the highest levels on all constructs, followed by the moderate group, and the low drinking group last. Conclusions Baseline drinking patterns of non-treatment-seekers were generally stable and pre-visit reductions were only observed among the heavy drinking group. This generally stable pattern stands in contrast to previous reports for treatment-seeking samples. Nevertheless, the heavier drinking group, which is most similar to treatment-seekers, displayed pre-study drinking reduction. Overall, naturalistic processes of change may pose less of a threat to randomization and testing in this population.