Internet-based Mindfulness and Exposure Treatment for Atopic Dermatitis

Atopic dermatitis (AD) is highly prevalent and leads to suffering for the individual, increased risk of depressive symptoms and anxiety, and high societal costs. A few psychological treatment have been tested for AD, but to our knowledge none of them have been built on recently developed methods for optimizing exposure treatment. In addition, access to psychological treatment is limited and there is a need for new methods that could be easily disseminated. One possible solution to this problem is to deliver psychological treatment via the Internet, which has been tested in more than 100 randomized trials with good results for other clinical disorders than AD. The aim of this study was to test the effects of Internet-delivered mindfulness and exposure treatment (I-MET) for AD in a randomized controlled trial. We hypothesized that I-MET would lead to larger reductions of AD symptoms as well as psychological symptoms compared to treatment as usual.