ACT in daily life in early psychosis: an ecological momentary intervention approach

Abstract

The current article describes the Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) in Daily Life (ACT-DL) training, a new mobile health treatment protocol for ACT applied in a randomized controlled trial in early psychosis individuals. Between weekly ACT therapy sessions, patients fill out brief questionnaires on an app about their mood, symptoms, activity, and current context, thus promoting awareness - a crucial component of ACT. The app also provides them with visual cues and exercises specifically related to the ACT sessions, to help them implement the techniques previously learned in therapy into their daily lives. Here we assess the feasibility of this protocol in 16 early psychosis individuals, as part of an ongoing randomized controlled trial. Specifically, we investigate the experienced usefulness of the ACT therapy and app, and burden of the protocol. Results indicate that participants find both the therapy sessions and the app useful, and that ACT-DL guides them in putting ACT into everyday practice, although the protocol may be moderately burdensome. These findings indicate that ACT-DL may help early psychosis patients applying ACT skills to diverse contexts of everyday life. Since ACT is not symptom-specific, ACT-DL may also be suited for different target populations. Limitations and future directions are discussed.