Seeing the Doctor without Fear: Systematic Desensitization for Medical Visits in ASD

Background:  People with asd not only have greater medical needs than the rest of the population (Gurney, McPheethers and Davis, 2006), but they also have particular characteristics that make it very difficult for them to get the medical services (need for anticipation, lack of flexibility, problems identifying and describing symptoms, hypersensitivity to certain stimuli, stress over waiting times, etc.). Going to a medical visit can be a traumatic experience for people with ASD and their families.

Objectives: To respond to this difficulty an important Spanish Hospital together with a private foundation are developing a free software and a Web called “Doctor TEA” for desensitization before medical visits. The project explain with cartoons, pictograms and movies several medical services so people with ASD can anticipate the event and feel less stress.

Methods:

The project will focused on the following:

-To design, implement, and evaluate a program based on
new technologies that make the medical environment more
familiar and less stressful to patients with ASD before, during,
and after a hospital visit.
- To evaluate the effectiveness of this program for reducing
patient stress and anxiety, improving the family’s quality care
perception, and reducing medical visit time.

Results: The project design software is built on a Web platform with a set of structured contents (in film format of a real hospital, in 2D and 3D) showing the physical spaces, medical professionals, techniques, and instruments used during a medical examination, including many interactive games. The project is freely available at www.doctortea.org

Conclusions:  Daily clinical practice demonstrates that with preparation and specific training in reducing sensitivity to medical procedures, patient anxiety is considerably reduced. The reasoning behind this program, which will be freely available to the public in the future, is to try to demonstrate that information, communications and technologies (ICTs) can help people with autism to anticipate and understand medical visits and tests that any hospital or health centre may perform.