Background: Research shows that alcohol and drug use among mental health clients is common and has the potential to negatively impact treatment outcomes. Internet-delivered cognitive behavior therapy (ICBT) as a treatment for anxiety and depression is on the rise, but little is known about the prevalence of alcohol and drug use among clients and how this use affects treatment completion and outcomes.
Objective: The objective of the current study was to explore the prevalence of alcohol and drug use among clients in ICBT for depression and anxiety, and to investigate the impact of alcohol and drug use on treatment completion and symptom outcomes.
While the efficacy of therapist-guided internet-delivered cognitive behaviour therapy (iCBT) for anxiety and depression is well-established, a significant proportion of clients show little to no improvement with this approach. Given that motivational interviewing (MI) is found to enhance face-to-face treatment of anxiety, the current trial examined potential benefits of a brief online MI intervention prior to therapist-guided iCBT. Clients applying to transdiagnostic therapist-guided iCBT in routine care were randomly assigned to receive iCBT with ( = 231) or without ( = 249) the online MI pre-treatment.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF•An online MI intervention was recently developed to complement ICBT.•Intervention consists of videos, exercises, feedback to better simulate face-to-face MI.•Study evaluated intervention impact on motivation and perceptions of MI.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe majority of people with depression in the United States either never seek treatment or gravitate exclusively to antidepressant medication (ADM), despite the existence of other effective treatments, such as cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT). Reluctance to use psychotherapy is partly due to lack of appropriate mental health literacy and perceptions of low treatment acceptability (appropriateness for a given problem) and credibility (treatment logicalness, and whether the patient expects improvement). In the current investigation, we examined whether providing psychoeducation about CBT for depression would change participant perceptions of the treatment's acceptability and credibility.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Although internet-delivered cognitive behaviour therapy (ICBT) yields large clinical outcomes when accompanied by therapeutic support, a portion of clients do not benefit from treatment. In ICBT, clients review treatment materials online typically on a weekly basis. A key component of therapist-assistance involves answering questions as clients review and work on assignments related to the treatment materials.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMany Internet-delivered cognitive behavioural therapy (ICBT) programs include email communication between clients and therapists as a part of treatment; yet relatively little is known about the nature and impact of this communication. Previous research conducted by Svartvatten et al. (2015) has identified 10 themes in written correspondence by clients accessing ICBT for depression.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground & Objectives: While cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT) is an established treatment for health anxiety, there are barriers to service access. Internet-delivered cognitive behaviour therapy (ICBT) has demonstrated effectiveness and has the potential to improve access to treatment. Nevertheless, it is unknown how patients perceive ICBT relative to other interventions for health anxiety and what factors predict ICBT acceptability.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFInternet-delivered cognitive behaviour therapy (ICBT) is an efficacious, yet novel approach to the treatment of depression and anxiety. It has the potential to improve access to evidenced-based care, but only if potential patients are aware of, understand, and have positive expectations about this treatment. In order to establish whether the use of an educational video could improve favourable expectations of ICBT, two studies were conducted.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThis study aimed to establish the efficacy of guided Internet-delivered cognitive-behaviour therapy (ICBT) for older adults with generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) or subclinical GAD. Participants were randomized to receive seven modules of ICBT (n=24) or to a waiting list condition (WLC; n=22). Faster improvements in symptoms of anxiety and depression were observed for participants in the ICBT condition relative to the WLC, with large between-group effect sizes on the Generalized anxiety disorder-7 (d=.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF