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Improving Self-Help E-Therapy for Depression and Anxiety Among Sexual Minorities: An Analysis of Focus Groups With Lesbians and Gay Men

BACKGROUND: E-therapies for depression and anxiety rarely account for lesbian and gay users. This is despite lesbians and gay men being at heightened risk of mood disorders and likely to benefit from having access to tailored self-help resources. OBJECTIVE: We sought to determine how e-therapies for...

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Autores principales: Rozbroj, Tomas, Lyons, Anthony, Pitts, Marian, Mitchell, Anne, Christensen, Helen
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: JMIR Publications Inc. 2015
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4376195/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25761775
http://dx.doi.org/10.2196/jmir.4013
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author Rozbroj, Tomas
Lyons, Anthony
Pitts, Marian
Mitchell, Anne
Christensen, Helen
author_facet Rozbroj, Tomas
Lyons, Anthony
Pitts, Marian
Mitchell, Anne
Christensen, Helen
author_sort Rozbroj, Tomas
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: E-therapies for depression and anxiety rarely account for lesbian and gay users. This is despite lesbians and gay men being at heightened risk of mood disorders and likely to benefit from having access to tailored self-help resources. OBJECTIVE: We sought to determine how e-therapies for depression and anxiety could be improved to address the therapeutic needs of lesbians and gay men. METHODS: We conducted eight focus groups with lesbians and gay men aged 18 years and older. Focus groups were presented with key modules from the popular e-therapy “MoodGYM”. They were asked to evaluate the inclusiveness and relevance of these modules for lesbians and gay men and to think about ways that e-therapies in general could be modified. The focus groups were analyzed qualitatively using a thematic analysis approach to identify major themes. RESULTS: The focus groups indicated that some but not all aspects of MoodGYM were suitable, and suggested ways of improving e-therapies for lesbian and gay users. Suggestions included avoiding language or examples that assumed or implied users were heterosexual, improving inclusiveness by representing non-heterosexual relationships, providing referrals to specialized support services and addressing stigma-related stress, such as “coming out” and experiences of discrimination and harassment. Focus group participants suggested that dedicated e-therapies for lesbians and gay men should be developed or general e-therapies be made more inclusive by using adaptive logic to deliver content appropriate for a user’s sexual identity. CONCLUSIONS: Findings from this study offer in-depth guidance for developing e-therapies that more effectively address mental health problems among lesbians and gay men.
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spelling pubmed-43761952015-04-02 Improving Self-Help E-Therapy for Depression and Anxiety Among Sexual Minorities: An Analysis of Focus Groups With Lesbians and Gay Men Rozbroj, Tomas Lyons, Anthony Pitts, Marian Mitchell, Anne Christensen, Helen J Med Internet Res Original Paper BACKGROUND: E-therapies for depression and anxiety rarely account for lesbian and gay users. This is despite lesbians and gay men being at heightened risk of mood disorders and likely to benefit from having access to tailored self-help resources. OBJECTIVE: We sought to determine how e-therapies for depression and anxiety could be improved to address the therapeutic needs of lesbians and gay men. METHODS: We conducted eight focus groups with lesbians and gay men aged 18 years and older. Focus groups were presented with key modules from the popular e-therapy “MoodGYM”. They were asked to evaluate the inclusiveness and relevance of these modules for lesbians and gay men and to think about ways that e-therapies in general could be modified. The focus groups were analyzed qualitatively using a thematic analysis approach to identify major themes. RESULTS: The focus groups indicated that some but not all aspects of MoodGYM were suitable, and suggested ways of improving e-therapies for lesbian and gay users. Suggestions included avoiding language or examples that assumed or implied users were heterosexual, improving inclusiveness by representing non-heterosexual relationships, providing referrals to specialized support services and addressing stigma-related stress, such as “coming out” and experiences of discrimination and harassment. Focus group participants suggested that dedicated e-therapies for lesbians and gay men should be developed or general e-therapies be made more inclusive by using adaptive logic to deliver content appropriate for a user’s sexual identity. CONCLUSIONS: Findings from this study offer in-depth guidance for developing e-therapies that more effectively address mental health problems among lesbians and gay men. JMIR Publications Inc. 2015-03-11 /pmc/articles/PMC4376195/ /pubmed/25761775 http://dx.doi.org/10.2196/jmir.4013 Text en ©Tomas Rozbroj, Anthony Lyons, Marian Pitts, Anne Mitchell, Helen Christensen. Originally published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research (http://www.jmir.org), 11.03.2015. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work, first published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research, is properly cited. The complete bibliographic information, a link to the original publication on http://www.jmir.org/, as well as this copyright and license information must be included.
spellingShingle Original Paper
Rozbroj, Tomas
Lyons, Anthony
Pitts, Marian
Mitchell, Anne
Christensen, Helen
Improving Self-Help E-Therapy for Depression and Anxiety Among Sexual Minorities: An Analysis of Focus Groups With Lesbians and Gay Men
title Improving Self-Help E-Therapy for Depression and Anxiety Among Sexual Minorities: An Analysis of Focus Groups With Lesbians and Gay Men
title_full Improving Self-Help E-Therapy for Depression and Anxiety Among Sexual Minorities: An Analysis of Focus Groups With Lesbians and Gay Men
title_fullStr Improving Self-Help E-Therapy for Depression and Anxiety Among Sexual Minorities: An Analysis of Focus Groups With Lesbians and Gay Men
title_full_unstemmed Improving Self-Help E-Therapy for Depression and Anxiety Among Sexual Minorities: An Analysis of Focus Groups With Lesbians and Gay Men
title_short Improving Self-Help E-Therapy for Depression and Anxiety Among Sexual Minorities: An Analysis of Focus Groups With Lesbians and Gay Men
title_sort improving self-help e-therapy for depression and anxiety among sexual minorities: an analysis of focus groups with lesbians and gay men
topic Original Paper
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4376195/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25761775
http://dx.doi.org/10.2196/jmir.4013
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