Background:
Psychological interventions are routinely offered during inpatient rehabilitation for Ukrainian military personnel, yet only a portion choose to engage. Understanding which symptom profiles support or hinder treatment acceptance is critical for improving early intervention strategies.
Objective:
To examine how PTSD, anxiety, and depressive symptoms relate to the likelihood of entering short-term psychotherapy during inpatient treatment.
Methods:
A cross-sectional sample of 276 Ukrainian military inpatients completed the PCL-5, PHQ-9, and GAD-7 at admission. Treatment engagement was coded as 1 = accepted, 0 = declined. Descriptive statistics, Spearman and partial correlations, and binomial logistic regression were conducted to identify unique predictors of therapy entry.
Results:
Overall, 92 participants (33.3%) entered therapy, while 184 (66.7%) declined. Those who accepted treatment showed higher PTSD (M=30.20 vs 22.95) and higher anxiety scores (M=9.38 vs 6.73). Logistic regression indicated that greater anxiety significantly increased the odds of entering therapy (β = 0.0919, p =.022), while depression reduced the odds of entry (β =−0.1097, p =.001). PTSD severity showed a trend-level association (β=0.0269, p=.056). Model discrimination was moderate (AUC=0.688; McFadden R²=0.0808). Correlational analyses showed a strong PTSD-anxiety association (Spearman's ρ=.756), which remained robust after controlling for depression (partial ρ=.687), whereas depression displayed only weak unique relationships (ρ≈.18-.22).
Conclusions:
While anxiety and depression showed significant but opposing associations with therapy entry, the model's predictive strength was modest, indicating that symptoms alone do not fully determine engagement. Broader motivational and contextual factors likely contribute, underscoring the importance of early motivational support and readiness interventions alongside symptom screening