Three Decades of Internet- and Computer-Based Interventions for the Treatment of Depression: Protocol for a Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Isaac Moshe; Yannik Terhorst; Pim Cuijpers; Ioana Cristea; Laura Pulkki-Råback; Lasse Sander

doi:10.2196/14860

Three Decades of Internet- and Computer-Based Interventions for the Treatment of Depression: Protocol for a Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

JMIR Res Protoc. 2020 Mar 24;9(3):e14860. doi: 10.2196/14860.

Authors

Isaac Moshe^#¹, Yannik Terhorst², Pim Cuijpers³, Ioana Cristea⁴, Laura Pulkki-Råback^{1

5}, Lasse Sander⁶

Affiliations

¹ Department of Psychology and Logopedics, Faculty of Medicine, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland.
² Department of Research Methods, University of Ulm, Ulm, Germany.
³ Department of Clinical, Neuro-, and Developmental Psychology, Amsterdam Public Health Research Institute, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Amsterdam, Netherlands.
⁴ Department of Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, Babes-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania.
⁵ Research Centre for Child Psychiatry, University of Turku, Turku, Finland.
⁶ Department of Rehabilitation Psychology and Psychotherapy, University of Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany.

^# Contributed equally.

PMID: 32207695
PMCID: PMC7139420
DOI: 10.2196/14860

Abstract

Background: Depression is one of the leading causes of disability worldwide. Internet- and computer-based interventions (IBIs) have been shown to provide effective, scalable forms of treatment. More than 100 controlled trials and a growing number of meta-analyses published over the past 30 years have demonstrated the efficacy of IBIs in reducing symptoms in the short and long term. Despite the large body of research, no comprehensive review or meta-analysis has been conducted to date that evaluates how the effectiveness of IBIs has evolved over time.

Objective: This systematic review and meta-analysis aims to evaluate whether there has been a change in the effectiveness of IBIs on the treatment of depression over the past 30 years and to identify potential variables moderating the effect size.

Methods: A sensitive search strategy will be executed across the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL), MEDLINE, EMBASE, and PsycINFO. Data extraction and evaluation will be conducted by two independent researchers. Risk of bias will be assessed. A multilevel meta-regression model will be used to analyze the data and estimate effect size.

Results: The search was completed in mid-2019. We expect the results to be submitted for publication in early 2020.

Conclusions: The year 2020 will mark 30 years since the first paper was published on the use of IBIs for the treatment of depression. Despite the large and rapidly growing body of research in the field, evaluations of effectiveness to date are missing the temporal dimension. This review will address that gap and provide valuable analysis of how the effectiveness of interventions has evolved over the past three decades; which participant-, intervention-, and study-related variables moderate changes in effectiveness; and where research in the field may benefit from increased focus.

Trial registration: PROSPERO CRD42019136554; https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/prospero/display_record.php?RecordID=136554.

International registered report identifier (irrid): PRR1-10.2196/14860.

Keywords: depression; internet-based interventions; meta-analysis; review.

©Isaac Moshe, Yannik Terhorst, Pim Cuijpers, Ioana Cristea, Laura Pulkki-Råback, Lasse Sander. Originally published in JMIR Research Protocols (http://www.researchprotocols.org), 24.03.2020.