Preschool Autism Communication Trial (PACT)

学前自闭症沟通试验 (PACT)

• 批准号: G0401546/1
• 负责人: Jonathan Green
• 金额: $ 168.05万
• 依托单位: University of Manchester
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2006
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2006 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=G0401546%2F1
• 关键词: Preschool; Autism; Communication; Trial; PACT

Autism is a severe and chronic childhood disability affecting families from early in childhood through the lifespan. Many claims have been made for effective treatments for autism, but surprisingly (given the importance of the disorder and the progress that has been made in understanding it), there has very little systematic research evidence to support effective treatments. Families and user groups have been vocal in calling for more research on treatment, and statutory agencies have been placed under escalating legal pressure through educational tribunals to provide intensive, costly but often quite untested interventions. This study would represent a significant enhancement of the evidence for effective treatment. It tests a treatment that is aims to enhance parent child communication in autism and the social and language development of the child. Families attend sessions with a therapist every two weeks for 6 months to learn new ways of understanding and communicating with their autistic child, with monthly booster sessions for a further 6 months. Similar treatment models have been applied to other kinds of communication disorder with good results. The study will randomly allocate 144 children in three representative sites across the UK (Manchester, Newcastle and London) to a group receiving routine clinical care in the community and another group receiving routine clinical care but with the addition of this communication intervention. Our pilot study using the same design on a single site has shown very promising value of adding this additional component to routine care. We will also study the cost effectiveness of the treatment. This treatment is not too intensive (with about 1.5 hours of therapist time and 3.5 hours of parent homework time weekly) and for this reason it would be possible to extend it practically into local health services. Because the treatment helps communication between parent and child, we find that it improves parental sense of competence and involvement with their child as well as the child?s development. These are key features identified in our focus groups with parents that are central to what families want from a treatment for Autism.We are collaborating with the National Autistic Society in this study and are conducting focus groups with service users to identify the best ways of measuring treatment outcomes that matter to families. We will disseminate information about this study and its results through the NAS, other newsletters and professional meetings.

孤独症是一种严重的慢性儿童残疾，从儿童早期到终生影响家庭。许多人声称可以有效治疗自闭症，但令人惊讶的是（考虑到这种疾病的重要性以及在理解它方面所取得的进展），很少有系统的研究证据支持有效的治疗方法。家庭和用户团体一直在呼吁对治疗进行更多的研究，法定机构通过教育法庭受到越来越大的法律的压力，要求提供密集、昂贵但往往未经检验的干预措施。这项研究将代表有效治疗证据的显著增强。它测试了一种治疗方法，旨在加强自闭症的父母和孩子的沟通以及孩子的社会和语言发展。家庭每两周参加一次治疗师的会议，为期6个月，以学习理解和与自闭症儿童沟通的新方法，并在接下来的6个月内每月进行一次助推器会议。类似的治疗模式已被应用于其他类型的沟通障碍，并取得了良好的效果。该研究将在英国三个有代表性的地点（曼彻斯特、纽卡斯尔和伦敦）随机分配144名儿童，一组接受社区常规临床护理，另一组接受常规临床护理，但增加了这种沟通干预。我们的试点研究使用相同的设计在一个单一的网站已经显示出非常有前途的价值，增加这一额外的组成部分，以常规护理。我们亦会研究这项治疗的成本效益。这种治疗不太密集（每周约1.5小时的治疗时间和3.5小时的家长家庭作业时间），因此，有可能将其实际推广到地方保健服务。因为治疗有助于父母和孩子之间的沟通，我们发现，它提高了父母的能力和参与感与他们的孩子以及孩子？的发展。这些都是我们与家长的焦点小组中确定的关键特征，这些特征是家庭希望从自闭症治疗中获得的核心。我们正在与国家自闭症协会合作进行这项研究，并与服务用户进行焦点小组，以确定衡量对家庭重要的治疗结果的最佳方法。我们将通过NAS、其他通讯和专业会议传播有关这项研究及其结果的信息。