Bottel Laura, Te Wildt Bert Theodor, Brand Matthias, Pape Magdalena, Herpertz Stephan, Dieris-Hirche Jan
Department of Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy, Ruhr University Bochum, LWL-University Hospital, Bochum, Germany.
Psychosomatic Hospital Diessen Monastery, Diessen am Ammersee, Germany.
Digit Health. 2023 Jan 2;9:20552076221144185. doi: 10.1177/20552076221144185. eCollection 2023 Jan-Dec.
Internet use disorder is a disorder of the digital age and presents a growing problem worldwide It appears that due to structural and personal barriers, many persons affected (PA) and Concerned Significant Others (CSO) do not reach the health care system so far and thus a chronification of the pathology can proceed.
A telemedicine counseling service for PA and CSO of PA unwilling to enter treatment with two webcam-based sessions of 60 minutes for each group was created with the aim of reaching out to PA and CSO to provide a low-threshold support and refer the participants to the local health care system. Motivational interviewing for PA and CRAFT (Community Reinforcement and Family Training) for CSO were used as methods. Participants answered questions about their Internet use and sociodemographic data and six months after participation, participants were asked via email if they entered the local health care system. CSO answered the questions for themselves and in a third-party rating for PA unwilling to enter treatment.
107 PA (34 years ( = 13.64), 86% male) and 38 CSO (53 years ( = 6.11), 28.9% male) participated in the two telemedicine sessions. After participation, 43.9% of the PA and 42.1% of the CSO reached the health care system. When there was consistency between the location of telemedicine consultation and treatment locally, over 90% of participants arrived (PA: 92.3%, CSO: 100%).
The results from this study reveal that telemedicine services could be a promising approach to address PA and CSO and build a bridge to the local health care system. Future studies should verify if these results can be replicated in randomized controlled trials.
互联网使用障碍是数字时代的一种疾病，在全球范围内呈现出日益严重的问题。由于结构和个人障碍，许多受影响者（PA）和相关重要他人（CSO）目前尚未进入医疗保健系统，因此病情可能会慢性化。
为不愿接受治疗的PA及其CSO创建了一项远程医疗咨询服务，为每个群体安排了两个基于网络摄像头的60分钟疗程，目的是联系PA和CSO，提供低门槛支持，并将参与者转介至当地医疗保健系统。对PA采用动机性访谈，对CSO采用社区强化与家庭训练（CRAFT）作为方法。参与者回答了有关其互联网使用情况和社会人口统计学数据的问题，参与六个月后，通过电子邮件询问参与者是否进入了当地医疗保健系统。CSO为自己回答问题，并对不愿接受治疗的PA进行第三方评分。
107名PA（34岁（=13.64），86%为男性）和38名CSO（53岁（=6.11）），28.9%为男性）参加了这两个远程医疗疗程。参与后，43.9%的PA和42.1%的CSO进入了医疗保健系统。当远程医疗咨询地点与当地治疗地点一致时，超过90%的参与者前来就诊（PA：92.3%，CSO：100%）。
本研究结果表明，远程医疗服务可能是解决PA和CSO问题并搭建通往当地医疗保健系统桥梁的一种有前景的方法。未来的研究应验证这些结果是否能在随机对照试验中得到重复。
