Incorporating Participatory Action Research in Attention Bias Modification Interventions for Addictive Disorders: Perspectives.

Melvyn Zhang,Jiangbo Ying

doi:10.3390/ijerph16050822

Abstract

Participatory action research was introduced in the 1960s and early 1970s, but it has only been more widely adopted in the recent years. Such methodologies have since been applied to several web & mobile-based interventions in psychiatry. To date no prior review has scoped the extent of the application of such methodologies for web & mobile-based interventions in psychiatry. In this article, a scoping literature review was performed, and seven articles have been identified. The most common methodologies are that of co-design workshops; and increasingly service users and participants are included in these workshops. There remains a lack of application of such methodologies for addiction research. Increasingly, attention and cognitive bias modification interventions are more commonplace, given that they have been found to be effective in modifying underlying biases amongst individuals with addictive disorders. Unfortunately, there remains to be inherent limitations with web and mobile versions of attention and cognitive bias modification interventions. Participatory design research methods could help address these limitations and future research involving the conceptualization of new attention or cognitive bias modification applications ought to consider the incorporation of these research methods.

Highlights

National Addiction Management Service, Institute of Mental Health, Singapore 539747, Singapore; Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore 380322, Singapore
Articles were extracted if they have utilised participatory research design and co-design in their methods and if they focused on the creation of an E-health or M-health intervention, which was specific for mental health
Owens et al [16] highlighted the importance of including participatory design research methods in their study, as it helps to ensure that the text messages were safe and personalised

Summary

Overview of Participatory Design Research

Participatory action research was introduced in the 1960s and early 1970s. it was only in the last decade that there has been more focus on the utilisation of these research methodologies [1,2,3]. The application of participatory research methods involves a collaboration with relevant stakeholders in exploring the following aspects of the research: developing and defining core research questions; the conduct of the research, collation of data, dissemination of data and findings [6] Such methods have been increasingly applied for psychiatry and mental health research. O’Conner et al [10] recognised that many of the existing smartphone applications had not met the specific needs of individuals living with dementia, nor the needs of their caregivers They utilised a focus group approach to identify barriers experienced by participants, in order to guide the co-design process. Such a web-based mental health clinic will help to provide young people with timely access to mental health care

Application of Participatory Design in Research in Other Disciplines

Research Methods

Findings

Conclusions