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Artificial intelligence-driven, chatbot-assisted acceptance and commitment therapy (Pai.ACT) for parents of young children with neurodevelopmental disorders: a randomised controlled trial

NCT ID NCT06779422

NEW Sponsor: Chinese University of Hong Kong Source: ClinicalTrials.gov ↗

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Recruitment status, easiest to join first

Recruiting now This study
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By invitation only
Not open to general applications. Only people the study team invites can take part.
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Ongoing
Running, but no longer taking on new participants.
Completed
The trial has finished. Results may not be published yet.
Stopped early
Stopped early, before it reached the end. That can be for many reasons, including safety.
Cancelled
Cancelled before anyone took part.

Expanded access (not trials)

Expanded access
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Expanded access (paused)
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Expanded access (ended)
Not a trial. The treatment could once be requested outside a study, but no longer can.
Approved
The treatment has been approved, so it is available normally rather than through this programme.

When the status isn't known

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First seen Sep 10, 2026 · Last updated Sep 10, 2026

Summary

Interventions for parents of children with NDD face two pivotal challenges. Firstly, many overlook the consequential influence of parenting stress, symptoms of parental anxiety and depression on the well-being of parent-child dyads. Though some address parenting stress, they fall short of considering comprehensive health outcomes. Secondly, current evidence has supported ACT as an empirically validated, transdiagnostic psychotherapeutic intervention for parents with dual benefits for the parent-child dyads, but the treatment delivery (e.g., group-based and guided online approaches) is primarily in-person, demanding the presence of expert personnel in every session, limiting its scalability and accessibility. Unlike other psychotherapies like CBT and mindfulness, conventional ACT sessions often adopt a 'one-size-fits-all' strategy, using standardised and pre-packed exercises lacking the personalisation necessary to address individual variations in psychological inflexibility. Leveraging our available innovation, Pai.ACT, an AI-driven chatbot adopting the Focused ACT approach, seeks to offer personalised and scalable mental health solutions for Chinese-speaking parents of NDD children. With our encouraging preliminary data supporting our pre-trained NLP model's accuracy and Pai.ACT's feasibility, the investigators propose to examine Pai.ACT in a full-scale clinical trial. The study will examine the following research questions: 1. Is Pai.ACT more effective than positive parenting advice for reducing parenting stress (primary outcome for parents) of parents and the emotional and behavioural symptoms of their young children with NDD (primary outcome for children) over the 12-month post-intervention follow-up? 2. Is Pai.ACT more effective than positive parenting advice for reducing symptoms of depression and anxiety, improving parental psychological flexibility and parenting behaviour over the 12-month post-intervention follow-up? 3. Is Pai.ACT more effective than positive parenting advice for reducing the use of healthcare and rehabilitation services in children with NDD over the 12-month post-intervention follow-up? 4. What are the perceived benefits, satisfaction, strengths, and limitations of Pai.ACT from the parents' perspectives?

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Study facts

What this study's own registry entry says, in plain language.

Phase

Not a phased trial

Phase numbers describe drug development. The registry uses this when they do not apply, as it does for trials of devices, procedures or behaviour changes, and for observational studies.

Participants

About 210 people

The number the study aims to enrol. It can still change while the study runs.

Started

Jan 2025

Expected to finish

Dec 2028

An estimate. End dates often move.

Lead sponsor

Other sponsor

The registry's catch-all category, for sponsors it does not file as a company, a government agency, or a research network.

Who can take part

This study's own entry requirements. Only the study team can say for certain whether you qualify.

Ages

21 years and older

Sex

Anyone

Healthy volunteers

Accepted

You do not need to have the condition being studied to take part.

Show the full entry requirements

Copied word for word from the study's registry entry, so the wording is the study team's rather than ours.

Inclusion Criteria: * Primary caregivers who are Cantonese-speaking Hong Kong residents. * Parents aged ≥21 years. * Primary caregivers who adopt the responsibility of taking care of the child. * Living together with the child and having smartphone devices for daily access to the internet. * Parent's children should be with following criteria: i) Aged 2-6 years. ii) Received a primary and clinical diagnosis/suspected diagnosis of NDD as indicated in the clinical records according to the DSM-5 criteria. (e.g., ASD, ADHD, developmental delay) iii) Registered for Social Welfare Department subvented Onsite Pre-school Rehabilitation Services. Exclusion Criteria: * Parents diagnosed with severe mental illnesses. * Parents with learning, cognitive, language, communication impairments or other debilitating conditions. (e.g., hearing or vision impairment) that could impede full participation in the study) * Parents currently participating in /under the evaluation of other psychosocial, psychoeducation or parenting programmes.

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Conditions

The condition(s) this trial relates to.

anxiety disorder attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, inattentive type attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder autism spectrum disorder Depression neurodevelopmental disorder Psychological Well-Being

As listed by the trial registrant

The condition terms exactly as the trial's registrant entered them.

Attention deficit disorder with hyperactivity (ADHD) Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) Neurodevelopmental disorders

How to take part

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  1. The places running it

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  2. The official record

    ClinicalTrials.gov lists the study team's own contact details, including names and phone numbers. We don't republish those.

    Open the record ↗

  3. A doctor treating you

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Contacts and locations

Locations

  • The Chinese University of Hong Kong

    RECRUITING

    Hong Kong, Hong Kong

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Other studies related to the condition(s) this trial covers.