Smart Sensory Technology in Psychotherapy for Pediatric OCD

Plain-language summary

Telemedicine interventions enable the improvement of behavioral state-of-the-art treatment of OCD, as therapy can be delivered in the patients' immediate home environment, allowing for more valid symptom actualization. In addition, access to experts is made possible even in rural areas, and the inhibition to seek therapy can be reduced. In a preliminary study, our research group was able to demonstrate the efficiency of using telemedical access. SSTeP-KiZ aims at the further development of telemedical treatment of children with OCD by using sensor technology in the home setting, where most symptoms occur. In this context, relevant emotional states of the patients such as anxiety and stress reactions shall be quantified reliably during the therapy session with exposures by combining different sensor modalities. As a result, the therapy procedure can be immediately and individually adapted to the patient and the situation, thus optimizing the success of the treatment. Methods: It is planned to establish the therapy system on a sample of 10 healthy children and 5-10 patients with OCD treated at University Hospital of Tübingen. Afterwards we will recruit 26 children with obsessive-compulsive disorder aged 12-18 years to conduct therapy with them. There are 14 weekly therapy sessions via teleconferencing with the children and parents. During the sessions and exposures, patients' field of view is recorded via eye trackers, measures of stress responses via heart rate and pupillometry, and movement measures for approach-avoidance behaviors. Using an AI approach, these indicators are integrated and reported back to the therapist online to optimize the therapy process. Accompanying app-based daily symptoms will also be collected by the children and parents and processed for use in the therapy process. We expect a good feasibility and significant symptom reduction by this therapeutic approach and the chance to make this system usable for broad clinical application.

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