AUTHOR=Kazlauskas Evaldas , Eimontas Jonas , Olff Miranda , Zelviene Paulina , Andersson Gerhard 

TITLE=Adherence Predictors in Internet-Delivered Self-Help Intervention for Life Stressors-Related Adjustment Disorder

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Psychiatry

VOLUME=11

YEAR=2020

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychiatry/articles/10.3389/fpsyt.2020.00137

DOI=10.3389/fpsyt.2020.00137

ISSN=1664-0640

ABSTRACT=<p><bold>Background:</bold> There is a growing body of evidence to show that low-intensity self-help internet-delivered interventions are effective in the treatment of mental disorders. Despite the promising effectiveness of internet-delivered interventions, there is still a challenge for mental health services to implement internet-delivered interventions in routine health care. The aim of this study was to analyze the predictors of adherence to a self-help internet-delivered intervention for adjustment disorder.</p><p><bold>Methods:</bold> This was a secondary report of data, including unpublished data, from a randomized controlled trial of an internet-delivered self-help intervention for adjustment disorder. The study included 1,077 participants who had completed online baseline assessments. All participants had experienced significant life stressors over the last 2 years and had high levels of adjustment disorder symptoms. We analyzed the role of sociodemographic variables, pre-treatment adjustment disorder symptoms, outcome expectations, and perceived barriers to mental health services on the use of the intervention.</p><p><bold>Results:</bold> We found that usage of internet-delivered self-help intervention and higher adherence was associated with female gender, greater age, higher pre-intervention outcome expectations, exposure to other forms of psychological therapy in addition to the internet-intervention at the time of the study, and reported perceived barriers to mental health services by the study participants.</p><p><bold>Conclusions:</bold> The findings of the study indicated the importance of non-specific therapeutic factors on adherence during internet-delivered intervention. Perceived barriers to mental health services were associated with higher adherence to self-help intervention, which indicated that communities with restricted access to mental health services could benefit from low-intensity internet-delivered interventions.</p>