Autistic Adult Online Interoception Feasibility Pilot Program.

There was no control group. Without one, any improvement could come from the eight weeks passing, from the attention of the instructors, or from taking part in a group at all. Only ten people completed the program, which leaves very little ability to detect a real change even if one exists. The authors argue this matters less in a feasibility study, but it still limits what the scores can show. Everyone who took part already knew about interoception before they started, and the authors say this may have limited how much they could improve. Participants were mostly white, female, employed, single and aged 30 to 39, and everyone had to be able to read and sign their own consent form. Adults who need help with communication were excluded, as were non-English speakers, so the sample is not representative of autistic adults generally. All outcomes came from self-report questionnaires with no physiological measure, and the program evaluation questions were written by the research team and never tested for how well they capture what they are meant to capture. Seven outcomes were compared without any adjustment for multiple testing, so the closest result, the alexithymia score at p = 0.08, could easily be chance. Eight weeks may be too short for change to show, and the authors say the questionnaires may not be sensitive enough to pick up change.

No funding was received for the study. The authors' conflicts of interest statement declares that Kelly Mahler receives royalties from The Interoception Curriculum, the program this intervention was adapted from. An autistic occupational therapist advisor was compensated as a collaborator and contributed to the research question, the intervention procedures and materials, and the interpretation of findings.

Do not read the positive feedback and the movement in every score as evidence that this program works. Ten people took part, there was no control group, and none of the before-and-after changes reached statistical significance (the closest was alexithymia at p = 0.08). The study set out to test whether the program could be delivered and attended, not whether it changes interoception, anxiety, alexithymia or quality of life.