PROF. DR. CHRISTIANE EICHENBERG

Die Nut­zung des Inter­nets ist bereits in wei­ten Tei­len unse­rer Gesell­schaft in den täg­li­chen Lebens­ab­läu­fen inte­griert und beein­flusst längst nicht mehr nur soziale Bezie­hun­gen, son­dern auch Berei­che der psy­chi­schen Gesund­heit und Behand­lung. Inwie­weit aber wird die psy­cho­ana­ly­ti­sche Pra­xis von den digi­ta­len Medien beein­flusst? Und wel­che Aus­wir­kun­gen haben soziale Medien auf das Indi­vi­duum aus psy­cho­ana­ly­ti­scher Sicht? Chan­cen, Mög­lich­kei­ten und Risi­ken inter­net­ba­sier­ter psy­cho­the­ra­peu­ti­scher Behand­lun­gen sol­len näher erör­tert wer­den.

Zum voll­stän­di­gen Radio­bei­trag auf Orange 94.0: https://cba.fro.at/340623

ABSTRACT

Back­ground: The use of the Inter­net as a source of health infor­ma­tion is gro­wing among people who expe­ri­ence men­tal health dif­fi­cul­ties. The increase in Inter­net use has led to ques­ti­ons about online information-seeking beha­vi­ors, for example, how psy­cho­the­ra­pists and pati­ents use the Inter­net to ascer­tain infor­ma­tion about each other. The notion of psy­cho­the­ra­pists see­king infor­ma­tion about their pati­ents online (patient-targeted goog­ling, PTG) has been iden­ti­fied and explo­red. Howe­ver, the idea of pati­ents sear­ching for infor­ma­tion online about their psy­cho­the­ra­pists (therapist-targeted goog­ling, TTG) and the asso­cia­ted moti­ves and effects on the the­ra­peutic rela­ti­ons­hip remain unclear.

Objec­tive: This study inves­ti­ga­ted for­mer and cur­rent German-speaking psy­cho­the­rapy pati­ents’ beha­vior and atti­tu­des rela­ting to TTG. In addi­tion, pati­ents’ methods of infor­ma­tion gathe­ring, moti­ves, and suc­cess in sear­ching for infor­ma­tion were exami­ned. Fur­ther­more, pati­ents’ expe­ri­en­ces and per­cep­ti­ons of PTG were explo­red.

Methods: Over­all, 238 for­mer and cur­rent psy­cho­the­rapy pati­ents respon­ded to a new ques­ti­on­naire spe­ci­fi­cally desi­gned to assess the fre­quency, moti­ves, use, and out­co­mes of TTG as well as expe­ri­en­ces and per­cep­ti­ons of PTG. The study sam­ple was a non­re­pre­sen­ta­tive con­ve­ni­ence sam­ple recrui­ted online via several German-speaking the­rapy plat­forms and self-help forums.

Results: Of the 238 for­mer and cur­rent pati­ents who respon­ded, 106 (44.5%) had obtai­ned infor­ma­tion about their the­ra­pists; most of them (n=85, 80.2%) had used the Inter­net for this. Besi­des curio­sity, moti­ves behind infor­ma­tion sear­ches inclu­ded the desire to get to know the the­ra­pist bet­ter by attemp­t­ing to search for both pro­fes­sio­nal and pri­vate infor­ma­tion. TTG appeared to be asso­cia­ted with pha­ses of the­rapy in which pati­ents felt that pro­gress was not being made. Pati­ents being trea­ted for per­so­na­lity dis­or­ders appear to engage more fre­quently in TTG (rphi = 0.21; P=.004). In gene­ral, howe­ver, infor­ma­tion about the­ra­pists sought for online was often not found. Fur­ther­more, most pati­ents refrai­ned from tel­ling their the­ra­pist about their infor­ma­tion sear­ches.

Con­clu­si­ons: Pati­ents appear to engage in TTG to obtain both pro­fes­sio­nal and pri­vate infor­ma­tion about their psy­cho­the­ra­pists. TTG can be viewed as a form of client-initiated dis­clo­sure. It is the­re­fore important to include TTG as a sub­ject in the­ra­pists’ edu­ca­tion and also to raise awa­ren­ess wit­hin pati­ent edu­ca­tion. This inves­ti­ga­tion pro­vi­des the first fin­dings into TTG to begin debate on this sub­ject.

Zum voll­stän­di­gen Online-Artikel im Jour­nal of Medi­cal Inter­net Rese­arch: http://mental.jmir.org/2016/2/e22/

Eichen­berg, C. & Sawyer, A. (2016). Do Pati­ents Look Up Their The­ra­pists Online? An Explo­ra­tory Study Among Pati­ents in Psy­cho­the­rapy. J Med Inter­net Res, 18 (1):e3. DOI: 10.2196/mental.5169.

Zusam­men­fas­sung

Hin­ter­grund: Die Bin­dungs­theo­rie kann einen wich­ti­gen Bei­trag zum Ver­ständ­nis der Ätio­pa­tho­ge­nese der Inter­net­sucht leis­ten.

Methode: In einer Online-Befragung wur­den sozio­de­mo­gra­fi­sche Merk­male, der Bin­dungs­stil, Sym­ptome der Inter­net­sucht, genutzte Dienste und Online-Beziehungsmotive erfasst.

Ergeb­nisse: Teil­neh­mer mit siche­rem und unsi­che­rem Bin­dungs­stil unter­schie­den sich in ihrer Ten­denz zu miss­bräuch­li­cher Inter­net­nut­zung und ihren Online-Beziehungsmotiven.

Dis­kus­sion: Diese Ergeb­nisse lie­fern Erkennt­nisse für die Ätio­pa­tho­ge­nese der Inter­net­sucht. The­ra­peu­ti­sche Impli­ka­tio­nen wer­den dis­ku­tiert.

Eichen­berg, C., Dyba, J. & Schott, M. (2016). Bin­dungs­stile, Nut­zungs­mo­tive und Inter­net­sucht. Psych­ia­tri­sche Pra­xis, doi:10.1055/s-0041–110025.

Abs­tract

BACKGROUND: Serious games are com­pu­ter or video games that con­tain ele­ments that are spe­ci­fi­cally desi­gned for the pur­pose of edu­ca­tion or trai­ning. Serious games are increa­sin­gly being used wit­hin health­care, but their intro­duc­tion into and app­li­ca­tion in psy­cho­the­ra­peutic set­tings as an e-mental health tre­at­ment moda­lity rai­ses ques­ti­ons for both pati­ents and the­ra­pists. Cur­rent rese­arch demons­tra­tes the poten­tial role and effec­tiven­ess of serious games wit­hin a psy­cho­the­ra­peutic con­text. Howe­ver, a limi­ted under­stan­ding of pati­ents’ and the­ra­pists’ exis­ting know­ledge and expe­ri­ence of serious games, as well as of their rea­di­ness to uti­lize and apply them for the tre­at­ment of psy­cho­lo­gi­cal con­di­ti­ons, requi­res fur­ther inves­ti­ga­tion.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: Accep­tance, expe­ri­ence, and requi­re­ments for the uti­liza­t­ion of serious games in the­ra­peutic con­texts were asses­sed through online sur­veys with German-speaking pati­ents (n = 260) and psy­cho­the­ra­pists (n = 234). Respond­ents’ ans­wers were ana­ly­zed by a com­bi­na­tion of descrip­tive and infe­ren­tial sta­ti­s­tics by using SPSS.

RESULTS: Cur­rent know­ledge regar­ding serious games was very limi­ted, with only 10.4% of pati­ents and 11.5% of the­ra­pists reporting exis­ting know­ledge. Howe­ver, a gene­ral open­ness toward the con­cept was obser­ved: 88% of pati­ents and 90% of the­ra­pists could envi­sage a the­ra­peutic use. Pati­ents (rs = 0.169, p = 0.006) who self-rated their level of com­pu­ter and video game exper­tise as high were more likely to con­sider use wit­hin psy­cho­the­rapy, com­pa­red with pati­ents who self-rated their exper­tise as low. The­ra­pists who cur­rently play com­pu­ter and video games per­ceive fewer dis­ad­van­ta­ges of serious game app­li­ca­tion in a psy­cho­the­ra­peutic con­text (p = 0.097). Con­side­ra­tion of serious game use was dif­fe­ren­tia­ted by the the­ra­peutic approach (p = 0.003), spe­ci­fic men­tal dis­or­ders (hig­hest rated rele­vant cases: anxiety dis­or­ders, affec­tive dis­or­ders, dis­or­ders regar­ding impulse con­trol, and adjust­ment dis­or­ders), and pati­ent age (i.e., use with young adults was deemed the most appro­priate by 91.8% of the­ra­pists).

CONCLUSION: The app­li­ca­tion of serious games is con­ceiva­ble for pati­ents and the­ra­pists, espe­cially as a com­ple­men­tary ele­ment to tra­di­tio­nal face-to-face psy­cho­the­rapy. Accep­tance is stron­gly rela­ted to the­ra­peutic con­text. Only a small num­ber of the­ra­pists and pati­ents agree on the pos­si­bi­lity of using a serious game ins­tead of face-to-face the­rapy.

Eichen­berg, C., Grab­mayer, G. & Green, N. (2016). Accep­tance of Serious Games in Psy­cho­the­rapy: An Inquiry into the Stance of The­ra­pists and Pati­ents. Tele­me­di­cine and e-Health, April 5^th. doi:10.1089/tmj.2016.0001

ABSTRACT

Back­ground: The increa­sing use of the Inter­net and its array of social net­works brings new ways for psy­cho­the­ra­pists to find out infor­ma­tion about their pati­ents, often refer­red to as patient-targeted goog­ling (PTG). Howe­ver, this topic has been sub­ject to little empi­ri­cal rese­arch; there has been hardly any atten­tion given to it in Ger­many and the rest of Europe and it has not been inclu­ded in ethi­cal gui­de­li­nes for psy­cho­the­rapy des­pite the com­plex ethi­cal issues it rai­ses.

Objec­tive: This study explo­red Ger­man psy­cho­the­ra­pists’ beha­vior and expe­ri­en­ces rela­ted to PTG, inves­ti­ga­ted how these vary with soci­ode­mo­gra­phic fac­tors and the­ra­peutic back­ground, and explo­red the cir­cum­stan­ces in which psy­cho­the­ra­pists con­side­red PTG to be appro­priate or not.

Methods: A total of 207 psy­cho­the­ra­pists respon­ded to a newly deve­lo­ped ques­ti­on­naire that asses­sed their expe­ri­ence of and views on PTG. The study sam­ple was a non­re­pre­sen­ta­tive con­ve­ni­ence sam­ple recrui­ted online via several German-speaking pro­fes­sio­nal the­rapy plat­forms.

Results: Most the­ra­pists (84.5%, 174/207) sta­ted that they had not actively con­side­red the topic of PTG. Howe­ver, 39.6% (82/207) said that they had alre­ady loo­ked for pati­ent infor­ma­tion online (eg, when they sus­pec­ted a pati­ent may have been lying) and 39.3% (81/207) knew col­leagues or super­vi­sors who had done so. Only 2.4% (5/207) of the­ra­pists had come across PTG during their edu­ca­tion and trai­ning.

Con­clu­si­ons: It is essen­tial to pro­vide PTG as a part of the­ra­pists’ edu­ca­tion and trai­ning. Fur­ther­more, the com­plex pro­blems con­cerning PTG should be intro­du­ced into codes of ethics to pro­vide expli­cit gui­dance for psy­cho­the­ra­pists in prac­tice. This report pro­vi­des initial sug­ges­ti­ons to open up debate on this topic.

Zum voll­stän­di­gen Online-Artikel im Jour­nal of Medi­cal Inter­net Rese­arch: http://www.jmir.org/2016/1/e3/

Eichen­berg, C. & Herz­berg, P.Y. (2016). Do The­ra­pists Google Their Pati­ents? A Sur­vey Among Psy­cho­the­ra­pists. J Med Inter­net Res, 18 (1):e3. DOI: 10.2196/jmir.4306.

Das Lehr­buch zur kom­pak­ten Ein­füh­rung in pra­xis­nahe Metho­den der Onlin­ebe­ra­tung und –the­ra­pie ist didak­tisch bes­tens auf­be­rei­tet. In der psy­cho­so­zia­len Bera­tung und The­ra­pie sind digi­tale Medien auf dem Vor­marsch. Diese Ein­füh­rung in Onlin­ebe­ra­tung und –the­ra­pie stellt For­schung und Pra­xis in den drei Fel­dern klinisch-psychologischer Inter­ven­tion im Inter­net­set­ting (Infor­ma­tion, Bera­tung, The­ra­pie) mit deren Chan­cen und Gren­zen vor.

Wei­tere Infor­ma­tio­nen auf der Verlags-Website

Eichen­berg, C. & Kühne, S. (2014). Ein­füh­rung Online-Beratung und –the­ra­pie. Grund­la­gen, Inter­ven­tio­nen und Effekte der Inter­net­nut­zung. Mün­chen: UTB.