Services to Enhance Social Functioning in Adults With Autism Spectrum Disorders

March 18, 2025 updated by: University of Pennsylvania

The purpose of this study is to test a novel, three-part cognitive behavioral treatment strategy to improve social functioning in adults with autism spectrum disorder.

The treatment, named TUNE In (Training to Understand and Navigate Emotions and Interactions), includes components to address the many behavioral domains involved in social functioning, including social motivation, social anxiety, social cognition, social skills, and generalization of the skills to community settings.

The Investigators will test the efficacy of TUNE In to improve social functioning in adults with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), using a randomized controlled trial using the SRS-2 as the primary outcome measure.

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

44

Phase

  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

  • United States
    • Pennsylvania
      • Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, 19104
        • Perelman School of Medicine

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

18 years and older (Adult, Older Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder

Exclusion Criteria:

  • intellectual disability
  • severe mood or psychotic symptoms experienced in the past 4 weeks
  • severe self-injurious or aggressive behavior
  • severe extrapyramidal motor or sedating side effects of medications
  • concomitant participation in another social skills treatment program.

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Treatment
  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
  • Masking: Single

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Intervention Group
Behavioral: Training to Understand and Navigate Emotions and Interactions (TUNE In)
A three-part cognitive behavioral treatment strategy to improve social functioning in adults with autism spectrum disorder. TUNE In includes components to address the many behavioral domains involved in social functioning, including social motivation, social anxiety, social cognition, social skills, and generalization of the skills to community settings.
No Intervention: Nonintervention Group

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Reduction in Social Responsiveness Scale, Second Edition (SRS-2) - Adult (Relative/Other Report)
Time Frame: Baseline and Post-Treatment (~1 year after baseline)
Scale ranges from 30 to 90 with higher T-scores indicating greater severity of autism symptomatology.
Baseline and Post-Treatment (~1 year after baseline)

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

University of Pennsylvania

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start (Actual)

February 16, 2021

Primary Completion (Actual)

June 22, 2023

Study Completion (Actual)

June 22, 2023

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

March 2, 2021

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

March 8, 2021

First Posted (Actual)

March 9, 2021

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

March 25, 2025

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

March 18, 2025

Last Verified

March 1, 2025

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • 820694

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

YES

IPD Plan Description

Data will be available through NIH NDAR registry

IPD Sharing Time Frame

Deidentified data will be uploaded to NDAR upon completion of the trial

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

No

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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