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Leveraging the social network for treatment of social anxiety: Pilot study of a youth-specific digital intervention with a focus on engagement of young men

OBJECTIVE: The primary objective was to determine the acceptability, feasibility and safety of a novel digital intervention (Entourage) for young people with prominent social anxiety symptoms, with a particular focus on the engagement of young men. The secondary aim was to explore whether the interv...

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Autores principales: Rice, Simon, O'Bree, Bridget, Wilson, Michael, McEnery, Carla, Lim, Michelle H., Hamilton, Matthew, Gleeson, John, Bendall, Sarah, D'Alfonso, Simon, Russon, Penni, Valentine, Lee, Cagliarini, Daniela, Howell, Simmone, Miles, Christopher, Pearson, Marc, Nicholls, Laura, Garland, Nicola, Mullen, Edward, McGorry, Patrick D., Alvarez-Jimenez, Mario
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Elsevier 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7232094/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32435600
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.invent.2020.100323
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author Rice, Simon
O'Bree, Bridget
Wilson, Michael
McEnery, Carla
Lim, Michelle H.
Hamilton, Matthew
Gleeson, John
Bendall, Sarah
D'Alfonso, Simon
Russon, Penni
Valentine, Lee
Cagliarini, Daniela
Howell, Simmone
Miles, Christopher
Pearson, Marc
Nicholls, Laura
Garland, Nicola
Mullen, Edward
McGorry, Patrick D.
Alvarez-Jimenez, Mario
author_facet Rice, Simon
O'Bree, Bridget
Wilson, Michael
McEnery, Carla
Lim, Michelle H.
Hamilton, Matthew
Gleeson, John
Bendall, Sarah
D'Alfonso, Simon
Russon, Penni
Valentine, Lee
Cagliarini, Daniela
Howell, Simmone
Miles, Christopher
Pearson, Marc
Nicholls, Laura
Garland, Nicola
Mullen, Edward
McGorry, Patrick D.
Alvarez-Jimenez, Mario
author_sort Rice, Simon
collection PubMed
description OBJECTIVE: The primary objective was to determine the acceptability, feasibility and safety of a novel digital intervention (Entourage) for young people with prominent social anxiety symptoms, with a particular focus on the engagement of young men. The secondary aim was to explore whether the intervention was associated with clinically significant improvements to clinical and social variables known to co-occur with social anxiety. METHOD: A multidisciplinary team comprising of mental health clinicians, researchers, young adult fiction writers, a comic artist and young people with a lived experience of social anxiety developed the Entourage platform in collaboration. Entourage combines evidence-based therapeutic techniques for social anxiety with an engaging, social-media-based interface that allows users to build social connections, while also receiving expert clinical moderation and support from peer workers. Acceptability, feasibility and safety outcomes of Entourage were tested in a 12-week pilot study with 89 young people (48.3% male; age M = 19.8 years, SD = 3.3 years). Eligible participants were recruited via liaison with four headspace early-intervention centres in north-western Melbourne. RESULTS: 56.8% of the sample reported social anxiety symptoms in the severe or very severe range at baseline. Results demonstrated the Entourage intervention was feasible, safe, and potentially acceptable, with 98.6% of participants reporting they would recommend Entourage to another young person experiencing social anxiety. Usage results were also comparable across male and non-male participants. Results showed that young people reliably and significantly improved on clinical and social variables. In particular, young males showed a clinically significant improvement on social anxiety symptoms (d = 0.79, p < .001), depression (d = 0.71, p < .001), belongingness (d = 0.58, p = .001), increased feelings of social connectedness (d = 0.46, p = .004) and decreased loneliness (d = 0.46, p = .006). Non-male participants also experienced a significant increase in social connectedness (d = 0.76, p < .001), alongside reduced social anxiety (d = 0.78, p < .001) and experiential avoidance (d = 0.81, p < .001). CONCLUSIONS: Entourage is a highly engaging and potentially effective intervention that represents a novel combination of features designed both to reduce social anxiety symptoms and improve social connection among young people. Entourage demonstrated some acceptability, feasibility and safety, with encouraging benefits to clinical and social variables. Entourage also showed favorable results for the engagement and support of young men with social anxiety symptoms.
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spelling pubmed-72320942020-05-20 Leveraging the social network for treatment of social anxiety: Pilot study of a youth-specific digital intervention with a focus on engagement of young men Rice, Simon O'Bree, Bridget Wilson, Michael McEnery, Carla Lim, Michelle H. Hamilton, Matthew Gleeson, John Bendall, Sarah D'Alfonso, Simon Russon, Penni Valentine, Lee Cagliarini, Daniela Howell, Simmone Miles, Christopher Pearson, Marc Nicholls, Laura Garland, Nicola Mullen, Edward McGorry, Patrick D. Alvarez-Jimenez, Mario Internet Interv Full length Article OBJECTIVE: The primary objective was to determine the acceptability, feasibility and safety of a novel digital intervention (Entourage) for young people with prominent social anxiety symptoms, with a particular focus on the engagement of young men. The secondary aim was to explore whether the intervention was associated with clinically significant improvements to clinical and social variables known to co-occur with social anxiety. METHOD: A multidisciplinary team comprising of mental health clinicians, researchers, young adult fiction writers, a comic artist and young people with a lived experience of social anxiety developed the Entourage platform in collaboration. Entourage combines evidence-based therapeutic techniques for social anxiety with an engaging, social-media-based interface that allows users to build social connections, while also receiving expert clinical moderation and support from peer workers. Acceptability, feasibility and safety outcomes of Entourage were tested in a 12-week pilot study with 89 young people (48.3% male; age M = 19.8 years, SD = 3.3 years). Eligible participants were recruited via liaison with four headspace early-intervention centres in north-western Melbourne. RESULTS: 56.8% of the sample reported social anxiety symptoms in the severe or very severe range at baseline. Results demonstrated the Entourage intervention was feasible, safe, and potentially acceptable, with 98.6% of participants reporting they would recommend Entourage to another young person experiencing social anxiety. Usage results were also comparable across male and non-male participants. Results showed that young people reliably and significantly improved on clinical and social variables. In particular, young males showed a clinically significant improvement on social anxiety symptoms (d = 0.79, p < .001), depression (d = 0.71, p < .001), belongingness (d = 0.58, p = .001), increased feelings of social connectedness (d = 0.46, p = .004) and decreased loneliness (d = 0.46, p = .006). Non-male participants also experienced a significant increase in social connectedness (d = 0.76, p < .001), alongside reduced social anxiety (d = 0.78, p < .001) and experiential avoidance (d = 0.81, p < .001). CONCLUSIONS: Entourage is a highly engaging and potentially effective intervention that represents a novel combination of features designed both to reduce social anxiety symptoms and improve social connection among young people. Entourage demonstrated some acceptability, feasibility and safety, with encouraging benefits to clinical and social variables. Entourage also showed favorable results for the engagement and support of young men with social anxiety symptoms. Elsevier 2020-05-08 /pmc/articles/PMC7232094/ /pubmed/32435600 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.invent.2020.100323 Text en © 2020 The Authors http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
spellingShingle Full length Article
Rice, Simon
O'Bree, Bridget
Wilson, Michael
McEnery, Carla
Lim, Michelle H.
Hamilton, Matthew
Gleeson, John
Bendall, Sarah
D'Alfonso, Simon
Russon, Penni
Valentine, Lee
Cagliarini, Daniela
Howell, Simmone
Miles, Christopher
Pearson, Marc
Nicholls, Laura
Garland, Nicola
Mullen, Edward
McGorry, Patrick D.
Alvarez-Jimenez, Mario
Leveraging the social network for treatment of social anxiety: Pilot study of a youth-specific digital intervention with a focus on engagement of young men
title Leveraging the social network for treatment of social anxiety: Pilot study of a youth-specific digital intervention with a focus on engagement of young men
title_full Leveraging the social network for treatment of social anxiety: Pilot study of a youth-specific digital intervention with a focus on engagement of young men
title_fullStr Leveraging the social network for treatment of social anxiety: Pilot study of a youth-specific digital intervention with a focus on engagement of young men
title_full_unstemmed Leveraging the social network for treatment of social anxiety: Pilot study of a youth-specific digital intervention with a focus on engagement of young men
title_short Leveraging the social network for treatment of social anxiety: Pilot study of a youth-specific digital intervention with a focus on engagement of young men
title_sort leveraging the social network for treatment of social anxiety: pilot study of a youth-specific digital intervention with a focus on engagement of young men
topic Full length Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7232094/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32435600
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.invent.2020.100323
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