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Emotional Rational Education Training Associated with Mindfulness for Managing Anxiety within Adolescents Affected by High-Functioning Autism: A Descriptive Study

Background: Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a chronic and persistent pervasive developmental disorder (PDD) whose characteristic deficit is represented by social difficulties, semantic–pragmatic alterations and a limited, unusual and repetitive pattern of interests and behaviors. Specifically, ind...

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Autores principales: Frolli, Alessandro, Ricci, Maria Carla, Di Carmine, Francesca, Orefice, Agnese, Saviano, Emilio, Carotenuto, Marco
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8614903/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34821617
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/bs11110156
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author Frolli, Alessandro
Ricci, Maria Carla
Di Carmine, Francesca
Orefice, Agnese
Saviano, Emilio
Carotenuto, Marco
author_facet Frolli, Alessandro
Ricci, Maria Carla
Di Carmine, Francesca
Orefice, Agnese
Saviano, Emilio
Carotenuto, Marco
author_sort Frolli, Alessandro
collection PubMed
description Background: Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a chronic and persistent pervasive developmental disorder (PDD) whose characteristic deficit is represented by social difficulties, semantic–pragmatic alterations and a limited, unusual and repetitive pattern of interests and behaviors. Specifically, individuals with high-functioning autism (HFA) frequently exhibit associated internalizing symptoms that are not part of the diagnostic criteria but which, nonetheless, tend to impair daily functioning. In this study, we investigated how some forms of treatment could be useful in subjects with HFA who display internalizing symptoms. Theoretical background relates to standard cognitive therapy (SCT) and rational education training with mindfulness (M-ERE). Methods: In this study, we investigated how some forms of treatment could be useful in subjects with HFA and internalizing symptoms, focusing on standard cognitive therapy (SCT) and mindfulness associated with emotional rational education training (M-ERE). We selected two groups of HFA patients with significant internalizing symptoms and performed two different forms of treatment for six months: SCT and M-ERE. The aim of the study was to verify the effectiveness of an M-ERE protocol with respect to anxious and depressive symptoms in subjects with HFA. Furthermore, we wanted to compare the results obtained with this combined treatment with those obtained in HFA subjects treated with SCT. Results: Our analyses showed an improvement in the internalizing symptoms (especially those related to the anxiety dimension) of the group that followed a treatment based on mindfulness and rational emotional education for 6 months compared to the group that had instead performed a 6-month treatment based on the SCT. Conclusions: Our hypotheses were supported by the results, which highlighted the efficacy of mindfulness-based interventions in the treatment of internalizing symptoms in adolescents with HFA, and specifically showed that an M-ERE intervention appears more effective in managing anxiety compared to treatment with SCT and appears to be equally effective in the management of depressive symptoms. Not only was the M-ERE treatment effective for the management of anxious and depressive symptoms in subjects with HFA, but the efficacy for the management of anxious symptoms was greater than the SCT treatment.
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spelling pubmed-86149032021-11-26 Emotional Rational Education Training Associated with Mindfulness for Managing Anxiety within Adolescents Affected by High-Functioning Autism: A Descriptive Study Frolli, Alessandro Ricci, Maria Carla Di Carmine, Francesca Orefice, Agnese Saviano, Emilio Carotenuto, Marco Behav Sci (Basel) Article Background: Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a chronic and persistent pervasive developmental disorder (PDD) whose characteristic deficit is represented by social difficulties, semantic–pragmatic alterations and a limited, unusual and repetitive pattern of interests and behaviors. Specifically, individuals with high-functioning autism (HFA) frequently exhibit associated internalizing symptoms that are not part of the diagnostic criteria but which, nonetheless, tend to impair daily functioning. In this study, we investigated how some forms of treatment could be useful in subjects with HFA who display internalizing symptoms. Theoretical background relates to standard cognitive therapy (SCT) and rational education training with mindfulness (M-ERE). Methods: In this study, we investigated how some forms of treatment could be useful in subjects with HFA and internalizing symptoms, focusing on standard cognitive therapy (SCT) and mindfulness associated with emotional rational education training (M-ERE). We selected two groups of HFA patients with significant internalizing symptoms and performed two different forms of treatment for six months: SCT and M-ERE. The aim of the study was to verify the effectiveness of an M-ERE protocol with respect to anxious and depressive symptoms in subjects with HFA. Furthermore, we wanted to compare the results obtained with this combined treatment with those obtained in HFA subjects treated with SCT. Results: Our analyses showed an improvement in the internalizing symptoms (especially those related to the anxiety dimension) of the group that followed a treatment based on mindfulness and rational emotional education for 6 months compared to the group that had instead performed a 6-month treatment based on the SCT. Conclusions: Our hypotheses were supported by the results, which highlighted the efficacy of mindfulness-based interventions in the treatment of internalizing symptoms in adolescents with HFA, and specifically showed that an M-ERE intervention appears more effective in managing anxiety compared to treatment with SCT and appears to be equally effective in the management of depressive symptoms. Not only was the M-ERE treatment effective for the management of anxious and depressive symptoms in subjects with HFA, but the efficacy for the management of anxious symptoms was greater than the SCT treatment. MDPI 2021-11-11 /pmc/articles/PMC8614903/ /pubmed/34821617 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/bs11110156 Text en © 2021 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Frolli, Alessandro
Ricci, Maria Carla
Di Carmine, Francesca
Orefice, Agnese
Saviano, Emilio
Carotenuto, Marco
Emotional Rational Education Training Associated with Mindfulness for Managing Anxiety within Adolescents Affected by High-Functioning Autism: A Descriptive Study
title Emotional Rational Education Training Associated with Mindfulness for Managing Anxiety within Adolescents Affected by High-Functioning Autism: A Descriptive Study
title_full Emotional Rational Education Training Associated with Mindfulness for Managing Anxiety within Adolescents Affected by High-Functioning Autism: A Descriptive Study
title_fullStr Emotional Rational Education Training Associated with Mindfulness for Managing Anxiety within Adolescents Affected by High-Functioning Autism: A Descriptive Study
title_full_unstemmed Emotional Rational Education Training Associated with Mindfulness for Managing Anxiety within Adolescents Affected by High-Functioning Autism: A Descriptive Study
title_short Emotional Rational Education Training Associated with Mindfulness for Managing Anxiety within Adolescents Affected by High-Functioning Autism: A Descriptive Study
title_sort emotional rational education training associated with mindfulness for managing anxiety within adolescents affected by high-functioning autism: a descriptive study
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8614903/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34821617
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/bs11110156
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