Promises and risks of web-based interventions in the treatment of depression 
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Promises and risks of web-based interventions in the treatment of depression
. Dialogues Clin Neurosci. 2020 Jun;22(2):161-168 Authors: Hegerl U, Oehler C Abstract Major depression (MD) is a highly prevalent and severe disorder with many patients having no access to efficient treatments such as pharmaco- and psychotherapy. Web-based interventions promise to be a method to provide resource-efficient and widespread access to psychotherapeutic support. Meta-analyses summarizing studies that use face-to-face psychotherapy as a comparator provide evidence for equivalent antidepressant efficacy. Web-based interventions seem to be particularly efficacious when they are accompanied by some form of professional guidance. However, they are also associated with a variety of possible risks (eg, suicidal crises can be overlooked) and unwanted effects (eg, increase in rumination and somatization due to self-monitoring) that are so far under-studied. Although some naturalistic studies yield smaller effect sizes than randomized controlled trials (RCTs), well-designed interventions with adequate guidance have been shown to be successfully integrable into routine care.
. PMID: 32699516 [PubMed - in process]
Source: Dialogues in Clinical Neuroscience - Category: Neuroscience Tags: Dialogues Clin Neurosci Source Type: research