Online Support Boosts Mental Health in Autism Caregivers

TOPLINE:

Compared with usual care, Empower-Autism, an online psychoeducational and psychotherapeutic programme for caregivers of children newly diagnosed with autism provided sustained improvement in caregivers’ mental health at 52 weeks, a trial reported.

METHODOLOGY:

• Researchers conducted a prospective, multicentre, two-parallel-group, randomised controlled superiority trial of the Empower-Autism programme, an online, group-based post-diagnostic programme that combines autism psychoeducation and acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) and is delivered via videoconferencing.
• The trial included 379 participants (mean age, 40.6 years; 88% women; 78% White British), all parents or primary caregivers of children aged 2-15 years diagnosed with autism within the past 12 months. Participants were recruited from 11 diagnostic or intervention centres for autism in North-West England between 2020 and 2022.
• Participants were randomly assigned to receive either the intervention (n = 255) or treatment as usual (n = 124), stratified by centre.
• The primary outcome was caregiver mental health, assessed using the General Health Questionnaire-30 (GHQ-30) 52 weeks after randomisation.

TAKEAWAY:

• Compared with caregivers in the treatment-as-usual group, those in the Empower-Autism group showed improved mental health at 52 weeks (adjusted mean difference in GHQ-30 scores, −4.95; P = .0030). Treatment effects were also significant at 12 and 26 weeks (P < .0001 and P = .0061, respectively).
• A total of 181 adverse events (116 in the Empower-Autism group and 65 in the treatment-as-usual group) and 15 serious adverse events were reported, none related to the intervention.
• The programme significantly improved caregiver adjustment to diagnosis, caregiver autism knowledge, and family wellbeing at 12 months.

IN PRACTICE:

“This trial tests an innovative intervention that is the first, to our knowledge, to integrate autism psychoeducation with psychotherapeutic components based on ACT in order to address the diverse and often complex mental health and wellbeing needs of caregivers of recently diagnosed autistic children in a holistic way. We recommend to clinical teams and policymakers the inclusion of this programme as part of an integrated stepped-care pathway for families of autistic children,” the authors wrote.

SOURCE:

The study was led by Kathy Leadbitter, PhD, University of Manchester, Manchester, United Kingdom. It was published online on March 11 in The Lancet Psychiatry.

LIMITATIONS:

The study limitations included the lack of participant blinding and reliance on self-reported outcomes. Missing data, partly due to pandemic-related pressures on schools, affected secondary measures. The COVID-19 pandemic likely reduced access to post-diagnostic support, and low comparator intervention use may have amplified group differences. Additionally, the study focused solely on online delivery, excluding individuals with sensory impairments, language barriers, or severe mental health needs.

DISCLOSURES:

The study was funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Health Technology Assessment Programme. Three authors received NIHR funding through their institution. One author is a senior investigator with NIHR and receives a director’s fee from a non-profit training company.

This article was created using several editorial tools, including AI, as part of the process. Human editors reviewed this content before publication.