Survey: Growing demand for digital psychotherapies to help veterans deal with substance abuse, depression, problem solving and insomnia

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e-mental-healthVet­er­ans go for dig­i­tal psy­chother­a­py (Health­care IT News):

“Com­put­er­ized psy­chother­a­pies, or CPTs, hold great inter­est for vet­er­ans receiv­ing out­pa­tient treat­ment, accord­ing to a study pub­lished in Telemed­i­cine and e‑Health. The study, rely­ing on infor­ma­tion pro­vid­ed by 151 vet­er­ans receiv­ing treat­ment in a Vet­er­ans Health Admin­is­tra­tion sub­stance use dis­or­der out­pa­tient clin­ic, showed vet­er­ans were open to a vari­ety of CPTs.…The most com­mon­ly select­ed CPTs were for sub­stance use (46 per­cent), depres­sion (45 per­cent), prob­lem solv­ing (43 per­cent), and insom­nia (42 percent).

“Inter­net- or com­put­er-based ther­a­pies” for men­tal health and sub­stance use dis­or­ders may reduce costs asso­ci­at­ed with ther­a­pist time, help patients over­come avoid­ance of treat­ment due to stig­ma, and solve access issues due to lack of trained ther­a­pists in some loca­tions, sched­ul­ing con­flicts, and trans­porta­tion barriers…CPTs are fast grow­ing and wide-rang­ing and offer oppor­tu­ni­ties, in con­cert with face-to-face ther­a­pies, for low­er­ing the cost of dis­ease man­age­ment among indi­vid­u­als with sub­stance use dis­or­ders who use health ser­vice with­in and beyond VHA,” the report not­ed. “Data on the effi­ca­cy of such pro­grams are also promising.”

Study: Tech­nol­o­gy Use and Inter­est in Com­put­er­ized Psy­chother­a­py: A Sur­vey of Vet­er­ans in Treat­ment for Sub­stance Use Dis­or­ders (Telemed­i­cine and e‑Health)

  • Abstract: This study exam­ined inter­est in com­put­er­ized psy­chother­a­pies (CPTs) and its rela­tion to use of infor­ma­tion tech­nol­o­gy among indi­vid­u­als receiv­ing Vet­er­ans Health Admin­is­tra­tion (VHA) out­pa­tient treat­ment. Vet­er­ans receiv­ing treat­ment in a VHA sub­stance use dis­or­der out­pa­tient clin­ic com­plet­ed a self-report ques­tion­naire. The sur­vey addressed recent expe­ri­ence using infor­ma­tion tech­nol­o­gy and poten­tial inter­est in using CPTs for symptoms/functional prob­lems asso­ci­at­ed with sub­stance use and men­tal health disorders.…Results: Of 151 respon­dents, 82% were inter­est­ed in CPT for at least one prob­lem, and 60% were inter­est­ed for more than one. The most com­mon­ly select­ed CPTs were for sub­stance use (46%), depres­sion (45%), prob­lem solv­ing (43%), and insom­nia (42%). None of the 23 mea­sures of infor­ma­tion tech­nol­o­gy use was asso­ci­at­ed with inter­est in CPTs. Con­clu­sions: Among vet­er­ans receiv­ing out­pa­tient sub­stance use treat­ment, inter­est in CPT is high and unre­lat­ed to infor­ma­tion tech­nol­o­gy use. Efforts to imple­ment CPTs may inter­est this population.

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