TY - JOUR
T1 - Perceived helpfulness of treatment for specific phobia
T2 - Findings from the World Mental Health Surveys
AU - WHO World Mental Health Survey Collaborators
AU - de Vries, Ymkje Anna
AU - Harris, Meredith G
AU - Vigo, Daniel
AU - Chiu, Wai Tat
AU - Sampson, Nancy A
AU - Al-Hamzawi, Ali
AU - Alonso, Jordi
AU - Andrade, Laura H
AU - Benjet, Corina
AU - Bruffaerts, Ronny
AU - Bunting, Brendan
AU - Caldas de Almeida, José Miguel
AU - de Girolamo, Giovanni
AU - Florescu, Silvia
AU - Gureje, Oye
AU - Haro, Josep Maria
AU - Hu, Chiyi
AU - Karam, Elie G
AU - Kawakami, Norito
AU - Kovess-Masfety, Viviane
AU - Lee, Sing
AU - Moskalewicz, Jacek
AU - Navarro-Mateu, Fernando
AU - Ojagbemi, Akin
AU - Posada-Villa, José
AU - Scott, Kate
AU - Torres, Yolanda
AU - Zarkov, Zahari
AU - Nierenberg, Andrew
AU - Kessler, Ronald C
AU - de Jonge, Peter
N1 - Copyright © 2021 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
PY - 2021/6/1
Y1 - 2021/6/1
N2 - BACKGROUND: Although randomized trials show that specific phobia treatments can be effective, it is unclear whether patients experience treatment as helpful in clinical practice. We investigated this issue by assessing perceived treatment helpfulness for specific phobia in a cross-national epidemiological survey.METHODS: Cross-sectional population-based WHO World Mental Health (WMH) surveys in 24 countries (n=112,507) assessed lifetime specific phobia. Respondents who met lifetime criteria were asked whether they ever received treatment they considered helpful and the number of professionals seen up to the time of receiving helpful treatment. Discrete-event survival analysis was used to calculate conditional-cumulative probabilities of obtaining helpful treatment across number of professionals seen and of persisting in help-seeking after prior unhelpful treatment.RESULTS: 23.0% of respondents reported receiving helpful treatment from the first professional seen, whereas cumulative probability of receiving helpful treatment was 85.7% after seeing up to 9 professionals. However, only 14.7% of patients persisted in seeing up to 9 professionals, resulting in the proportion of patients ever receiving helpful treatment (47.5%) being much lower than it could have been with persistence in help-seeking. Few predictors were found either of perceived helpfulness or of persistence in help-seeking after earlier unhelpful treatments.LIMITATIONS: Retrospective recall and lack of information about either types of treatments received or objective symptomatic improvements limit results.CONCLUSIONS: Despite these limitations, results suggest that helpfulness of specific phobia treatment could be increased, perhaps substantially, by increasing patient persistence in help-seeking after earlier unhelpful treatments. Improved understanding is needed of barriers to help-seeking persistence.
AB - BACKGROUND: Although randomized trials show that specific phobia treatments can be effective, it is unclear whether patients experience treatment as helpful in clinical practice. We investigated this issue by assessing perceived treatment helpfulness for specific phobia in a cross-national epidemiological survey.METHODS: Cross-sectional population-based WHO World Mental Health (WMH) surveys in 24 countries (n=112,507) assessed lifetime specific phobia. Respondents who met lifetime criteria were asked whether they ever received treatment they considered helpful and the number of professionals seen up to the time of receiving helpful treatment. Discrete-event survival analysis was used to calculate conditional-cumulative probabilities of obtaining helpful treatment across number of professionals seen and of persisting in help-seeking after prior unhelpful treatment.RESULTS: 23.0% of respondents reported receiving helpful treatment from the first professional seen, whereas cumulative probability of receiving helpful treatment was 85.7% after seeing up to 9 professionals. However, only 14.7% of patients persisted in seeing up to 9 professionals, resulting in the proportion of patients ever receiving helpful treatment (47.5%) being much lower than it could have been with persistence in help-seeking. Few predictors were found either of perceived helpfulness or of persistence in help-seeking after earlier unhelpful treatments.LIMITATIONS: Retrospective recall and lack of information about either types of treatments received or objective symptomatic improvements limit results.CONCLUSIONS: Despite these limitations, results suggest that helpfulness of specific phobia treatment could be increased, perhaps substantially, by increasing patient persistence in help-seeking after earlier unhelpful treatments. Improved understanding is needed of barriers to help-seeking persistence.
U2 - 10.1016/j.jad.2021.04.001
DO - 10.1016/j.jad.2021.04.001
M3 - Article
C2 - 33940429
SN - 0165-0327
VL - 288
SP - 199
EP - 209
JO - Journal of Affective Disorders
JF - Journal of Affective Disorders
ER -