View Item 

Improving Adherence and Clinical Outcomes in Self- Guided Internet Treatment for Anxiety and Depression: Randomised Controlled Trial

Access Status
Open access
Authors
Titov, N.
Dear, B.
Johnston, L.
Lorian, C.
Zou, J.
Wootton, B.
Spence, J.
McEvoy, Peter
Rapee, Ronald
Date
2013
Type
Journal Article

Metadata
Show full item record
Citation
Titov, Nickolai and Dear, Blake F. and Johnston, Luke and Lorian, Carolyn and Zou, Judy and Wootton, Bethany and Spence, Jay and McEvoy, Peter M. and Rapee, Ronald M. 2013. Improving Adherence and Clinical Outcomes in Self- Guided Internet Treatment for Anxiety and Depression: Randomised Controlled Trial. PLoS ONE. 8 (7): e62873.
Source Title
PLoS ONE
DOI
ISSN
Remarks

This article is published under the Open Access publishing model and distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/. Please refer to the licence to obtain terms for any further reuse or distribution of this work.

URI
Collection
Abstract

Background: Depression and anxiety are common, disabling and chronic. Self-guided internet-delivered treatments are popular, but few people complete them. New strategies are required to realise their potential.Aims: To evaluate the effect of automated emails on the effectiveness, safety, and acceptability of a new automated transdiagnostic self-guided internet-delivered treatment, the Wellbeing Course, for people with depression and anxiety.Method: A randomised controlled trial was conducted through the website: www.ecentreclinic.org. Two hundred and fifty seven people with elevated symptoms were randomly allocated to the 8 week course either with or without automated emails, or to a waitlist control group. Primary outcome measures were the Patient Health Questionnaire 9-Item (PHQ-9) and the Generalized Anxiety Disorder 7-Item (GAD-7).Results: Participants in the treatment groups had lower PHQ-9 and GAD-7 scores at post-treatment than controls. Automated emails increased rates of course completion (58% vs. 35%), and improved outcomes in a subsample with elevated symptoms.Conclusions: The new self-guided course was beneficial, and automated emails facilitated outcomes. Further attention to strategies that facilitate adherence, learning, and safety will help realise the potential of self-guided interventions.