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Background: Up to 9% of young people suffer from depression. Unfortunately, many in need of help remain untreated. The Internet offers anonymous ways to help depressed youth, especially those who are reluctant to search for help because of fear of stigma. Objective: Our goal was to evaluate the effectiveness of an individual chat treatment based on Solution-Focused Brief Therapy (SFBT) to young individuals aged 12-22 years with depressive symptoms by comparing it to a waiting list control group. Methods: For this study, 263 young people with depressive symptoms were randomized to the Web-based SFBT intervention, PratenOnline, or to a waiting list control condition. The chat treatment was delivered by trained professionals. Groups were compared on depressive complaints as measured by the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D) after 9 weeks and 4.5 months. For the chat group only, changes in depressive symptoms at 7.5 months after baseline were explored. Results: The experimental SFBT condition (n=131) showed significantly greater improvement than the waiting list condition (n=132) in depressive symptoms at 9 weeks and 4.5 months on the CES-D, with a small between group effect size at 9 weeks (d=0.18, 95% CI -0.10 to 0.47) and a large effect size at 4.5 months (d=0.79, 95% CI 0.45-1.08). The percentage of participants showing a reliable and clinically significant change in depression was significantly larger for the SFBT intervention at 4.5 months only (28.2% vs 11.4% for the waiting list, P<.001, number needed to treat=6). At 7.5 months, the SFBT group showed further improvements. However, results have to be considered carefully because of high attrition rates. Conclusions: The Web-based SFBT chat intervention of PratenOnline was more effective than a waiting list control group in reducing depressive symptoms, and effects were larger at follow-up then at post-treatment. More studies are needed to find out if outcomes will be replicated, especially for those younger than 18 year old. Tial Registration: Netherlands Trial Register: NTR 1696; http://www.trialregister.nl/trialreg/admin/rctview.asp?TC=1696 (Archived by WebCite at http://www.webcitation.org/6DspeYWrJ). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Depression is a worldwide problem warranting global solutions to tackle it. Enhancing well-being has benefits in its own right and could be a good strategy for preventing depression. Providing well-being interventions via the Internet may have synergetic effects. Objective: Psyfit ("mental fitness online") is a fully automated self-help intervention to improve well-being based on positive psychology. This study examines the clinical effects of this intervention. Methods: We conducted a 2-armed randomized controlled trial that compared the effects of access to Psyfit for 2 months (n=143) to a waiting-list control condition (n=141). Mild to moderately depressed adults in the general population seeking self-help were recruited. Primary outcome was well-being measured by Mental Health Continuum-Short Form (MHC-SF) and WHO Well-being Index (WHO-5); secondary outcomes were depressive symptoms, anxiety, vitality, and general health measured by Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale (CES-D), Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale Anxiety subscale (HADS-A), and Medical Outcomes Study-Short Form (MOS-SF) vitality and general health subscales, respectively. Online measurements were taken at baseline, 2 months, and 6 months after baseline. Results: The dropout rate was 37.8% in the Psyfit group and 22.7% in the control group. At 2-month follow-up, Psyfit tended to be more effective in enhancing well-being (nonsignificantly for MHC-SF: Cohen's d=0.27, P=.06; significantly for WHO-5: Cohen's d=0.31, P=.01), compared to the waiting-list control group. For the secondary outcomes, small but significant effects were found for general health (Cohen's d=0.14, P=.01), vitality (d=0.22, P=.02), anxiety symptoms (Cohen's d=0.32, P=.001), and depressive symptoms (Cohen's d=0.36, P=.02). At 6-month follow-up, there were no significant effects on well-being (MHC-SF: Cohen's d=0.01, P=.90; WHO-5: Cohen's d=0.26, P=.11), whereas depressive symptoms (Cohen's d=0.35, P=.02) and anxiety symptoms (Cohen's d=0.35, P=.001) were still significantly reduced compared to the control group. There was no clear dose-response relationship between adherence and effectiveness, although some significant differences appeared across most outcomes in favor of those completing at least 1 lesson in the intervention. Conclusions: This study shows that an online well-being intervention can effectively enhance well-being (at least in the short-term and for 1 well-being measure) and can help to reduce anxiety and depression symptoms. Further research should focus on increasing adherence and motivation, reaching and serving lower-educated people, and widening the target group to include people with different levels of depressive symptoms. Trial Registration: Netherlands Trial Register (NTR) number: NTR2126; http://www.trialregister.nl/trialreg/admin/rctview.asp?TC=2126 (archived by WebCite at http://www.webcitation.org/6IIiVrLcO). (J Med Internet Res 2013;15(9):e200) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Internet-based guided self-help is efficacious for panic disorder, but it is not known whether such treatment is effective for milder panic symptoms as well. Objective: To evaluate the effectiveness of Don't Panic Online, an Internet-based self-help course for mild panic symptoms, which is based on cognitive behavioral principles and includes guidance by email. Methods: A pragmatic randomized controlled trial was conducted. Participants (N=126) were recruited from the general population and randomized to either the intervention group or to a waiting-list control group. Inclusion criteria were a Panic Disorder Severity Scale-Self Report (PDSS-SR) score between 5-15 and no suicide risk. Panic symptom severity was the primary outcome measure; secondary outcome measures were anxiety and depressive symptom severity. Measurements were conducted online and took place at baseline and 12 weeks after baseline (T1). At baseline, diagnoses were obtained by telephone interviews. Results: Analyses of covariance (intention-to-treat) showed no significant differences in panic symptom reduction between groups. Completers-only analyses revealed a moderate effect size in favor of the intervention group (Cohen's d=0.73, P=.01). Only 27% of the intervention group finished lesson 4 or more (out of 6). Nonresponse at T1 was high for the total sample (42.1%). Diagnostic interviews showed that many participants suffered from comorbid depression and anxiety disorders. Conclusions: The Internet-based guided self-help course appears to be ineffective for individuals with panic symptoms. However, intervention completers did derive clinical benefits from the intervention. Trial Registration: Nederlands Trial Register: NTR1639; http://www.trialregister.nl/trialreg/admin/rctview.asp?TC=1639 (Archived by WebCite at http://www.webcitation.org/6ITZPozs9). (J Med Internet Res 2013;15(7):e154) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Depression is a serious mental health problem, whose first onset is usually in adolescence. Online treatment may offer a solution for the current undertreatment of depression in youth. For adults with depressive symptoms, the effectiveness of Internet-based cognitive behavioral therapy has been demonstrated. This study is one of the first randomized controlled trials to investigate the effectiveness online depression treatment for young people with depressive complaints and the first to focus on an online group course. Objective: To evaluate and discuss the effectiveness of a guided Web-based group course called Grip op Je Dip (Master Your Mood [MYM]), designed for young people aged 16 to 25 years with depressive symptoms, in comparison with a wait-listed control group. Methods: We randomly assigned 244 young people with depressive symptoms to the online MYM course or to a waiting-list control condition. The primary outcome measure was treatment outcome after 3 months on the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale. Secondary outcomes were anxiety (measured by the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale) and mastery (Mastery Scale). We studied the maintenance of effects in the MYM group 6 months after baseline. Missing data were imputed. Results: The MYM group (n = 121) showed significantly greater improvement in depressive symptoms at 3 months than the control group (n = 123) (t[sub 187] = 6.62, P < .001), with a large between-group effect size of d = 0.94 (95% confidence interval [CI] 0.64-1.23). The MYM group also showed greater improvement in anxiety (t[sub 187] = 3.80, P < .001, d = 0.49, 95% CI 0.24-0.75) and mastery (t[sub 187] = 3.36, P = .001, d = 0.44, 95% CI 0.19-0.70). At 12 weeks, 56% (68/121) of the participants in the MYM group and 20% (24/123) in the control group showed reliable and clinically significant change. This between-group difference was significant Due to image rights restrictions, multiple line equation(s) cannot be graphically displayed., P < .001) and yielded a number needed to treat of 2.7. Improvements in the MYM group were maintained at 6 months. A limitation is the infeasibility of comparing the 6-month outcomes of the MYM and control groups, as the controls had access to MYM after 3 months. Conclusions: The online group course MYM was effective in reducing depressive symptoms and anxiety and in increasing mastery in young people. These effects persisted in the MYM group at 6 months. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Self-help interventions without professional contact to curb adult problem drinking in the community are increasingly being delivered via the Internet. Objective: The objective of this meta-analysis was to assess the overall effectiveness of these eHealth interventions. Methods: In all, 9 randomized controlled trials (RCTs), all from high-income countries, with 9 comparison conditions and a total of 1553 participants, were identified, and their combined effectiveness in reducing alcohol consumption was evaluated by means of a meta-analysis. Results: An overall medium effect size (g = 0.44, 95% CI 0.17-0.71, random effect model) was found for the 9 studies, all of which compared no-contact interventions to control conditions. The medium effect was maintained (g = 0.39; 95% CI 0.23-0.57, random effect model) after exclusion of two outliers. Type of control group, treatment location, type of analysis, and sample size did not have differential impacts on treatment outcome. A significant difference (P = .04) emerged between single-session personalized normative feedback interventions (g = 0.27, 95% CI 0.11-0.43) and more extended e- self-help (g = 0.61, 95% CI 0.33-0.90). Conclusion: E-self-help interventions without professional contact are effective in curbing adult problem drinking in high-income countries. In view of the easy scalability and low dissemination costs of such interventions, we recommend exploration of whether these could broaden the scope of effective public health interventions in low- and middle-income countries as well. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Web-based self-help interventions for problem drinking are coming of age. They have shown promising results in terms of cost-effectiveness, and they offer opportunities to reach out on a broad scale to problem drinkers. The question now is whether certain groups of problem drinkers benefit more from such Web-based interventions than others. Objective: We sought to identify baseline, client-related predictors of the effectiveness of Drinking Less, a 24/7, free-access, interactive, Web-based self-help intervention without therapist guidance for problem drinkers who want to reduce their alcohol consumption. The intervention is based on cognitive-behavioral and self-control principles. Methods: We conducted secondary analysis of data from a pragmatic randomized trial with follow-up at 6 and 12 months. Participants (N = 261) were adult problem drinkers in the Dutch general population with a weekly alcohol consumption above 210 g of ethanol for men or 140 g for women, or consumption of at least 60 g (men) or 40 g (women) one or more days a week over the past 3 months. Six baseline participant characteristics were designated as putative predictors of treatment response: (1) gender, (2) education, (3) Internet use competence (sociodemographics), (4) mean weekly alcohol consumption, (5) prior professional help for alcohol problems (level of problem drinking), and (6) participants' expectancies of Web-based interventions for problem drinking. Intention-to-treat (ITT) analyses, using last-observation-carried-forward (LOCF) data, and regression imputation (RI) were performed to deal with loss to follow-up. Statistical tests for interaction terms were conducted and linear regression analysis was performed to investigate whether the participants' characteristics as measured at baseline predicted positive treatment responses at 6- and 12-month follow-ups. Results: At 6 months, prior help for alcohol problems predicted a small, marginally significant positive treatment outcome in the RI model only (beta = .18, P = .05, R² = .11). At 12 months, females displayed modest predictive power in both imputation models (LOCF: beta = .22, P = .045, R² = .02; regression: beta = .27, P = .01, R² = .03). Those with higher levels of education exhibited modest predictive power in the LOCF model only (beta = .33, P = .01, R² = .03). Conclusions: Although female and more highly educated users appeared slightly more likely to derive benefit from the Drinking Less intervention, none of the baseline characteristics we studied persuasively predicted a favorable treatment outcome. The Web-based intervention therefore seems well suited for a heterogeneous group of problem drinkers and could hence be offered as a first-step treatment in a stepped-care approach directed at problem drinkers in the general population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]