Computer Therapy for the Anxiety and Depressive Disorders Is Effective, Acceptable and Practical Health Care: A Meta-Analysis

By G. Andrews, Pim Cuijpers, Michelle G. Craske, Peter M. McEvoy, N. Titov. PLoS ONE, 2010

1,347 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Background Depression and anxiety disorders are common and treatable with cognitive behavior therapy (CBT), but access to this therapy is limited. Objective Review evidence that computerized CBT for the anxiety and depressive disorders is acceptable to patients and effective in the short and longer term. Method Systematic reviews and data bases were searched for randomized controlled trials of computerized cognitive behavior therapy versus a treatment or control condition in people who met diagnostic criteria for major depression, panic disorder, social phobia or generalized anxiety disorder. Number randomized, superiority of treatment versus control (Hedges g) on primary outcome measure, risk of bias, length of follow up, patient adherence and satisfaction were extracted. Principal Findings 22 studies of comparisons with a control group were identified. The mean effect size superiority was 0.88 (NNT 2.13), and the benefit was evident across all four disorders. Improvement from computerized CBT was maintained for a median of 26 weeks follow-up. Acceptability, as indicated by adherence and satisfaction, was good. Research probity was good and bias risk low. Effect sizes were non-significantly higher in comparisons with waitlist than with active treatment control conditions. Five studies comparing computerized CBT with traditional face-to-face CBT were identified, and both modes of treatment appeared equally beneficial. Conclusions Computerized CBT for anxiety and depressive disorders, especially via the internet, has the capacity to provide effective acceptable and practical health care for those who might otherwise remain untreated. Trial Registration Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry ACTRN12610000030077

Subfields: Applied Psychology, Experimental and Cognitive Psychology, Social Psychology

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/c61829ea7abfc43bd2a240c332f9699014e7586e

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Citations in the corpus

Side effects in Internet-based interventions for Social Anxiety Disorder (2014, background): “Barak et al. (2008) found that 75 out of 746 calculated effect sizes were zero or negative (10.”
Standalone smartphone apps for mental health—a systematic review and meta-analysis (2019, neutral): “31 The same goes for PTSD, for which the most recent review found an average pooled effect of 0.95, 32 while the two only randomized trials that we were able to include in this study evaluating standalone apps for PTSD did not ﬁ nd signi ﬁ cant effects.”
Internet and Computer-Based Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Anxiety and Depression in Youth: A Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Outcome Trials (2015, background): “Effects sizes were slightly lower than those found for cCBT for anxiety and depressive disorders in adults (g = 0.88) [30], were comparable to those found in recent meta-analyses on traditional face-to-face CBT for anxiety disorders in youth (0.66) [15] and somewhat higher as those found for CBT…”
Guided Internet‐based vs. face‐to‐face cognitive behavior therapy for psychiatric and somatic disorders: a systematic review and meta‐analysis (2014, background): “In addition to short-term effects indicating equivalence compared to therapist administered therapy (14-16), there are also a few long-term follow-up studies showing lasting effects over as much as 5 years post-treatment (17).”
Effectiveness of Guided Internet-Based Cognitive Behavior Therapy in Regular Clinical Settings (2013, neutral): “– Knowledge from Efficacy Studies The empirical support for guided ICBT has been covered in many previous systematic reviews and meta-analyses [Andrews et al., 2010; Hedman et al., 2012a], not only for mood and anxiety disorders [Spek et al., 2007], but also for somatic problems [Cuijpers et al.,…”
Digital Mental Health Interventions for Depression, Anxiety, and Enhancement of Psychological Well-Being Among College Students: Systematic Review (2018, neutral): “The evidence base for digital mental health interventions for general adult populations is vast [12-15], and the evidence base for college and university student populations is rapidly accumulating.”
The efficacy of internet-delivered treatment for generalized anxiety disorder: A systematic review and meta-analysis (2015, methodology): “Finally, the reference lists of accepted papers and other reviews and meta-analysis (Andrews et al., 2010; Cuijpers et al., 2009; Przeworski & Newman, 2006; Reger & Gahm, 2009) were checked for further relevant papers.”
Embodied Conversational Agents in Clinical Psychology: A Scoping Review (2017, positive): “Internet-based interventions can be effective in the treatment of various mental disorders compared with care-as-usual (eg, face-to-face treatment) and waiting list control groups [1].”
Rainbow SPARX: A Novel Approach to Addressing Depression in Sexual Minority Youth (2015, result): “Our findings that CCBT leads to a reduction in depressive symptoms are in line with previous research in both adults and adolescents (Andrews et al., 2010; Richardson et al., 2010).”
Acceptability of healthcare interventions: an overview of reviews and development of a theoretical framework (2017, background): “These included two reviews measuring adherence and satisfaction [45, 46], three reviews focusing on dropout rates, take-up rates, reasons for discontinuation and a satisfaction measure [47–49] one review combining the time taken for wound healing alongside a measure of satisfaction and comfort [29],”