Chess Training as add-on Intervention for Adolescents With Psychiatric and Psychosomatic Disorders

Sponsor

Central Institute of Mental Health, Mannheim (Other)

Overall Status

Recruiting

CT.gov ID

NCT05698615

Collaborator

Munich Chess academy (Other)

Enrollment

Location

Arms

Anticipated Duration (Months)

11.5

Patients Per Site Per Month

Study Details

Study Description

Brief Summary

In the planned study, the effect of chess training on the cognitive abilities of children and adolescents with psychiatric and psychosomatic illnesses will be investigated in a naturalistic setting. Furthermore, the effects on therapy success and quality of life will be determined.Despite the thoroughly positive results, CRT has not yet been included in the official guidelines as an intervention in standard therapy; this is due, among other things, to too few studies and too little knowledge in the field of child and adolescent psychiatry. The planned study aims to fill the research gap in the field of chess training as an adjunctive intervention in children and adolescents and to provide further evidence on the relevance of CRT in child and adolescent psychiatry.

The hypotheses of the proposed study are:

chess training as a six-week add-on intervention will improve cognitive functioning in adolescents with psychiatric/psychosomatic disorders compared to standard treatment.
chess training as a six-week add-on intervention improves quality of life in adolescents with psychiatric/psychosomatic disorders compared to standard treatment.
chess training as a six-week add-on intervention positively influences the course of therapy in adolescents with psychiatric/psychosomatic illnesses compared to standard treatment.

Condition or Disease	Intervention/Treatment	Phase
Children and Adolescents Inpatient in Psychiatric Hospital	Behavioral: Chess training	N/A

Study Design

Study Type:

Interventional

Anticipated Enrollment :

92 participants

Allocation:

Non-Randomized

Intervention Model:

Parallel Assignment

Intervention Model Description:

After inclusion in the study, participation in chess training begins after screening. Patients who have volunteered for chess training are then matched with patients for the comparison group. Care is taken to ensure that this group is similar to the chess group in terms of diagnoses and age ("pairwise matching").After inclusion in the study, participation in chess training begins after screening. Patients who have volunteered for chess training are then matched with patients for the comparison group. Care is taken to ensure that this group is similar to the chess group in terms of diagnoses and age ("pairwise matching").

Masking:

None (Open Label)

Primary Purpose:

Treatment

Official Title:

Chess Training as add-on Intervention for Adolescents With Psychiatric and Psychosomatic Disorders

Actual Study Start Date :

Oct 1, 2022

Anticipated Primary Completion Date :

May 1, 2023

Anticipated Study Completion Date :

Jun 1, 2023

Arms and Interventions

Arm	Intervention/Treatment
Experimental: Chess training group group receiving additional chess training	Behavioral: Chess training The chess training, which takes place as a measure for CRT with the children and adolescents, is carried out by the concept of the Munich Chess Academy. The concept applied here, "Chess according to the King's Plan", represents a holistic concept. Especially prepared for children and adolescents, theoretical aspects are illustrated in games and exercises.
No Intervention: control group group receiving standard therapy only

Arm

Intervention/Treatment

Experimental: Chess training group

group receiving additional chess training

Behavioral: Chess training

The chess training, which takes place as a measure for CRT with the children and adolescents, is carried out by the concept of the Munich Chess Academy. The concept applied here, "Chess according to the King's Plan", represents a holistic concept. Especially prepared for children and adolescents, theoretical aspects are illustrated in games and exercises.

No Intervention: control group

group receiving standard therapy only

Outcome Measures

Primary Outcome Measures

Change in comorbidities [2 time points: before and after 6 weeks chess training]
Youth Self Report (YSR, Achenbach 1991b)
Change in depressive symptoms [2 time points: before and after 6 weeks chess training]
Beck Depression Inventory II (BDI-II, Beck, Steer, Brown 1996)
Change in anxiety symptoms [2 time points: before and after 6 weeks chess training]
Beck Anyxiety Inventory (BAI, deutsche Version Margraf, Ehlers 2007)
Change in Quality of life [2 time points: before and after 6 weeks chess training]
The KIDSCREEN Group Europe. (2006).
Change of the overall functional level [2 time points: before and after 6 weeks chess training]
Global assessment of functioning (Diagnostic screening measure according to DSM-IV)
Change in mental flexibility [2 time points: before and after 6 weeks chess training]
Dimensional Card Sorting Task (Zelazo et al., 2014
Change in attentional capacity [2 time points: before and after 6 weeks chess training]
d2 Test of Attention (Brickenkamp 2002)
Change in Reaction inhibition [2 time points: before and after 6 weeks chess training]
Go-No-Go Task (Sebastian et al., 2013)
Change in Fluid intelligence [2 time points: before and after 6 weeks chess training]
Stop Signal Task (Sebastian et al., 2013)
Change in reaction time [2 time points: before and after 6 weeks chess training]
Simple Reaction Time Task (Woods, Wyma, Yund, Herron, & Reed, 2015)

Eligibility Criteria

Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study:

13 Years to 17 Years

Sexes Eligible for Study:

All

Accepts Healthy Volunteers:

Inclusion Criteria:

Inpatient treatment at the Clinic for Psychiatry and Psychotherapy of Childhood and Adolescence, ZI Mannheim
Age between 13 and 17 years
Sufficient ability to answer questions verbally and in written form
Ability to give consent by patients and their parents after detailed verbal and written explanation
Consent of patients and parents must be given in paper form