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Web-based treatment for infertility-related psychological distress

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Abstract

Infertility has been associated with stigma and negative psychosocial functioning. However, only a small proportion of this population actually receives care. Fertility patients predominantly use the Internet for information gathering, social support, and assistance with decision-making; yet, available web resources are unreliable sources of mental health care. Web-based alternatives also have the potential to assist with intervention access difficulties and may be of significant lower cost. This study evaluated the efficacy of a web-based approach to providing a cognitive behavioral intervention with 31 infertile women seeking medical reproductive technologies. Following randomized assignment, participants using the web-based intervention were compared with those in a wait-list control condition on general and infertility-related psychological stress measures. Results were mixed regarding intervention efficacy. Significant declines in general stress were evidenced in the experimental group compared with a wait-list control group. However, website access did not result in statistically significant improvements on a measure of infertility-specific stress. These findings add to the literature on psychological interventions for women experiencing fertility problems. Moreover, despite the widespread use of the Internet by this population, the present study is one of the first to investigate the usefulness of the Internet to attenuate stress in this population. Preliminary results suggest general stress may be significantly reduced in infertile women using an online cognitive behavioral approach.

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful for the generous contributions of the research participants. We acknowledge Ryan Sexton for pro bono website development. The authors wish to thank Drs. William Keye Jr. and Bradley Miller for their valuable support with the development and implementation of this study. The authors appreciate Amy Drayton and Marya McCarroll and the clinical staff who assisted with recruitment during the study.

Conflict of interest

No financial support was received. Participant honoraria were paid by the first author. The authors have no conflicts of interest to report.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychiatry, University of Michigan Medical School, 4250 Plymouth Road, Ann Arbor, MI, 48109, USA

    Minden B. Sexton

  2. Department of Psychology, Eastern Michigan University, Ypsilanti, USA

    Michelle R. Byrd

  3. Department of Psychology, University of Nevada, Reno, USA

    William T. O’Donohue

  4. Department of Psychiatry, University of Nevada, Reno, USA

    Negar Nicole Jacobs

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  1. Minden B. Sexton
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  2. Michelle R. Byrd
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  3. William T. O’Donohue
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  4. Negar Nicole Jacobs
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Correspondence to Minden B. Sexton.

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Sexton, M.B., Byrd, M.R., O’Donohue, W.T. et al. Web-based treatment for infertility-related psychological distress. Arch Womens Ment Health 13, 347–358 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00737-009-0142-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00737-009-0142-x

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