Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental disease that is specially characterized by impairments in social communication and social skills. ASD has a high prevalence in children, affecting 1 in 160 subjects. Virtual reality (VR) has emerged as an effective tool for intervention in the health field. Different recent papers have reviewed the VR-based treatments in ASD, but they have an important limitation because they only use clinical databases and do not include important technical indexes such as the Web of Science index or the Scimago Journal & Country Rank. To our knowledge, this is the first contribution that has carried out an evidence-based systematic review including both clinical and technical databases about the effectiveness of VR-based intervention in ASD. The initial search identified a total of 450 records. After the exclusion of the papers that are not studies, duplicated articles, and the screening of the abstract and full text, 31 articles met the PICO (Population, Intervention, Comparison and Outcomes) criteria and were selected for analysis. The studies examined suggest moderate evidence about the effectiveness of VR-based treatments in ASD. VR can add many advantages to the treatment of ASD symptomatology, but it is necessary to develop consistent validations in future studies to state that VR can effectively complement the traditional treatments.

Patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) are at risk of both a gradual decline in cognitive function and an increase in psychological distress. This includes symptoms of anxiety, depression, and sleep disturbances, all of which are factors that have been associated with increased morbidity and mortality. In response, we are now seeing that interventions based on new digital technologies are increasingly used in order to optimize patients’ quality of life. Systematic research of the literature on electronic databases (MEDLINE/PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, and PsycInfo/ProQuest) covering the period from 2012 to 2022 was conducted in order to methodically review the existing evidence regarding the implementation and effectiveness of technology-based interventions in the management of cognitive and psychological well-being symptoms in patients with CKD. A total of 739 articles were retrieved, 13 of which are included in the present review. All the studies focused on the usability, acceptability, and feasibility of technology-based interventions aimed at psychological symptoms, with no studies targeting cognitive functioning. Technology-based interventions offer feelings of safety, fun, and satisfaction, and they also have the potential to improve CKD patients’ health outcomes regarding their psychological well-being. The diverseness of technologies allows an approximation towards the identification of those types of technologies most frequently used, as well as the symptoms targeted. There was considerable heterogeneity in the types of technologies used for interventions in so few studies, making it difficult to draw conclusive findings with regard to their efficiency. In order to adequately assess the technology-based health interventions effect, future lines of research should consider designing non-pharmacological treatments for the improvement of cognitive and psychological symptoms in this type of patient.

The scale of positive and negative experiences (SPANE) assesses emotional responses and their frequency of manifestation in recent weeks. This scale has been validated in different countries and populations but not in Spanish adolescents. The aim was to evaluate the psychometric properties of SPANE in two samples: (1) Sample I included 797 adolescents (M = 15.5 years old, SD = 0.68, 54.2% female) and, (2) Sample II included 1433 adolescents (M = 13.7 years old, SD = 1.27, 53.2% female). Finally, a subsample from sample II was analyzed in different stages (after six and 12 months) with 298 adolescents (M = 13.7 years old, SD = 1.13, 58.7% female). The results obtained have adequate levels of reliability and validity that seem to justify the use of this diagnostic tool in the Spanish adolescent population.