(PS12-59) Adaptation of the Unified Protocol to an Internet-based Intervention in Argentina: Design and Development of the IUPI Platform

Abstract Text: Internet-based interventions are self-directed programs that are operated through platforms. These types of interventions are particularly relevant in low/middle-income countries as a large percentage of the population (80%) does not have access to evidence-based treatments. The inclusion of these technologies, according to the World Health Organization, could increase accessibility to available treatments. The Unified Protocol (PU) (Barlow et al., 2011) is a cognitive-behavioral transdiagnostic intervention that by focusing on addressing neuroticism, a variable of psychopathological vulnerability, allows the treatment of comorbidities of the anxious-depressive spectrum more efficiently than protocols focused on specific disorders. 
This paper will present the design and development of IUPI, the first Internet-based intervention developed in Argentina. 



First, permission was requested from the original authors of the model to adapt the intervention to our country. The development was carried out through an interdisciplinary UBACYT research project funded by the University of Buenos Aires in which the Faculty of Psychology and the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Buenos Aires worked together. 



The website design was carried out during 2021, 2022 and 2023. ReactJS was used for the front-end and Django for the back-end. The website has two access modes for users: therapists and patients. Therapists can create new patients and see the answers that patients have entered in each of the exercises in order to establish telephone contact. They also see the progress graph of each patient's OASIS and ODSIS scales. When the patient user logs in, he/she is presented with the assigned program and within that program, with each of the modules. In each module they are asked to complete the OASIS and ODSIS scales, and then the system displays a graph with the scores of both scales for progress monitoring.

The team of psychologists worked on adapting the contents of the patient handbook. Cultural adaptation was carried out and the material was organized in ten sequential modules. In addition to the adaptation to the local culture of the explanations and exercises of the 8 modules of the PU, a pre-module (module 0) was included in which: the program and how the intervention works is presented, how to complete the assessment scales is explained and the functional model of emotional disorders is presented through a video. In turn, the exposure module 7 has been divided into two weeks. For the functional model and module 5, animations have been designed with characters that relate their problems in which, for example, the different types of emotional behaviors are exemplified. Throughout the process, the team of psychologists tested the functioning of the platform.
 

As for future lines, usability and acceptability tests of IUPI will begin this year in a sample of ten patients and ten therapists, and it is hoped that the implementation of this type of intervention can be generalized in our country and prove useful in reducing the gap in access to psychological treatment for our population.