Publications by authors named "Per Carlbring"
Background: Deliberate Practice (DP), which underscores the importance of expert mentorship, personalized learning objectives, feedback, and repetition, has been suggested as a method to enhance the effectiveness of therapists.
Method: The study tested the efficacy of an eight-week, structured, group-based online course, enriched with peer feedback, for 37 Cognitive Behavioral Therapists. The goal was to assess whether this intervention could boost the quality of therapist-patient alliances, as compared to a control group.
Article Synopsis
- This text talks about how internet-based cognitive behavioral therapy (ICBT) started and grew in Sweden over the last 25 years.
- It highlights important research and shows that ICBT has helped people with various mental health problems like anxiety and depression.
- The review also mentions that while there have been some challenges, there’s a need for more studies to better integrate online therapy into regular medical care.
Article Synopsis
- Access to evidence-based therapy for PTSD is limited, and a new approach called blended Trauma-focused Cognitive Therapy (bTF-CT) combines online modules with some in-person sessions to improve accessibility while preserving the benefits of traditional therapy.* -
- The study evaluated the feasibility and effectiveness of bTF-CT by providing it to 17 participants in various clinics, using questionnaires and the PTSD Symptom Checklist (PCL-5) to measure outcomes like treatment satisfaction and symptom changes.* -
- Results showed high satisfaction and retention rates, with most participants experiencing significant reductions in PTSD symptoms, suggesting that bTF-CT is a viable treatment option that merits further large-scale testing against standard therapies.*
Article Synopsis
- The study focuses on introducing and evaluating a new internet-delivered cognitive behavioral therapy (iCBT) program for gambling disorder in Sweden, comparing it to traditional face-to-face treatments.
- After two years, the study found significant improvements in symptoms among iCBT patients, along with high satisfaction ratings, suggesting it is an effective treatment alternative.
- Both iCBT and face-to-face treatment showed similar outcomes in terms of patient engagement and care needs post-treatment, indicating that digital therapy can be a viable option in addiction care.
Article Synopsis
- Researchers are recognizing the need to assess positive functioning for better clinical outcomes, and this paper evaluates the Questionnaire on Well-Being (QWB), which measures subjective well-being.
- Two studies were conducted: Study One focused on treatment-seeking individuals and assessed the QWB's structure, reliability, and validity, identifying a cutoff point with clinical significance; Study Two confirmed these findings with a larger general public sample.
- The QWB demonstrated strong internal consistency and reliability, showing positive correlations with well-being and negative correlations with mental health issues, indicating its potential as a useful tool in both clinical and non-clinical environments.
Article Synopsis
- The study investigates the impact of the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine on anxiety and depression among 1,222 individuals engaged in online therapy in Sweden, revealing an increase in anxiety but negligible changes in depression symptoms following the onset of the war.
- Results showed that higher socioeconomic status was linked to decreases in both anxiety and depression, suggesting SES may act as a protective factor during crises.
- The findings highlight the importance of internet-based psychotherapy for addressing emotional disorders in crisis situations and can inform strategies to reduce mental health issues during such events.
Background: Alcohol-related issues are widespread worldwide and are fairly substantial. Numerous studies have identified and clarified the effects and prevalence of alcohol use across different contexts. However, when it comes to the prevalence of alcohol in psychiatry and its impact on treatment outcomes compared to other patient groups, studies are relatively scarce, and results often vary, sometimes with different outcomes.
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- Guided self-help is an evidence-based mental health intervention that relies on a facilitator, referred to as the guide, who supports clients in using self-help materials effectively.
- The article highlights the essential competencies and responsibilities of guides, such as fostering client engagement, personalizing support, and structuring sessions appropriately.
- It emphasizes the need for better recognition of guides' roles in mental health services and discusses challenges like "self-help drift" that guides must manage while identifying mental health issues and adhering to supervision protocols.
Background: Anxiety and depression are highly prevalent and often comorbid mental disorders that are encompassed within the broad category of emotional disorders. The frequent comorbidity of anxiety and depression can pose challenges for accurate diagnosis and treatment which, in turn, highlights the need for reliable measurements that are simultaneously responsive to change and prevent non-response bias. Brief measures of anxiety and depression can potentially increase response rates due to their brevity and ease of administration.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIn mental health care, the integration of artificial intelligence (AI) into internet interventions could significantly improve scalability and accessibility, provided that AI is perceived as being as effective as human professionals. This longitudinal study investigates the comparative perceptions of ChatGPT and human mental health support professionals across three dimensions: authenticity, professionalism, and practicality. Initially, 140 participants evaluated responses from both sources without knowing their origin, revealing that AI-generated responses were rated significantly higher across all dimensions.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSocial Anxiety Disorder (SAD) is highly prevalent and debilitating disorder. Treatments exist but are not accessible and/or helpful for all patients, indicating a need for accessible treatment alternatives. The aim of the present trial was to evaluate internet-delivered psychodynamic therapy (IPDT) with and without therapist guidance, compared to a waitlist control condition, in the treatment of adults with SAD.
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- * Interviews with 23 participants revealed three main themes of barriers to further treatment: a disconnect between treatment options and individual needs, practical obstacles, and the tension between seeking help and withdrawing.
- * Participants expressed hope that mHealth could enhance their recovery by fostering self-awareness, helping them connect with support systems, and providing timely assistance, indicating it may help address existing challenges to continued treatment.
Article Synopsis
- Perfectionism can be a problem if you tie your value to achievements, making it hard to have flexible standards and behaviors.
- A study tested two types of online therapy for perfectionism: Internet-based Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Perfectionism (iCBT-P) and Internet-based Unified Protocol (iUP) over eight weeks with 138 participants.
- Both treatments showed positive results in helping with perfectionism and related issues like anxiety and stress, but they didn’t differ much from each other, suggesting that both could be effective without needing to choose one over the other.
Article Synopsis
- The auto-play feature in online casinos allows players to set pre-defined spin sequences, and while it's commonly used by high-intensity and problem gamblers, its causal effects on gambling behavior are still unclear.* -
- A real-life experiment in Sweden revealed that introducing the auto-play feature on 40 slot machines increased total gambling activity by approximately 7-9% in bet amounts and possibly 3% in spins, but did not affect net losses.* -
- The study highlights the need for more research on the broader impacts of auto-play and discusses challenges in banning this feature within the intricate online gambling environment.*
Article Synopsis
- The study evaluated a guided online mindfulness-based intervention (iMBI) aimed at helping community residents in Hong Kong manage emotional distress during the COVID-19 pandemic.
- In a randomized controlled trial, 64 participants were divided into a treatment group, which received 16 online modules and support, and a control group, which had no intervention.
- Results showed that the treatment group had significantly reduced anxiety and depressive symptoms and improved mindfulness, highlighting the effectiveness of the guided iMBI during the pandemic.
Objectives: Clinician-supported internet-delivered cognitive behavioral therapy (ICBT) can be an effective treatment option when treating social anxiety disorder (SAD). Unguided ICBT is often found to be less effective. One possible solution to reduce the costs of clinician support is to provide support on demand.
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- Perfectionism is a problem that can lead to different mental health issues, and there’s a type of therapy called Cognitive Behaviour Therapy for Perfectionism (CBT-P) that helps reduce it.
- A study was done to see how young people felt about using a new form of this therapy that includes artificial intelligence (AI-CBT-P), and they found that many liked the idea of using AI for help with their anxiety and depression.
- Although they saw benefits like easy access and low cost, some young people had concerns, so more research is needed to see if this AI-based therapy really works for them.
Introduction: Quality of life (QoL) can be defined as the goodness of life, beyond simply absence of disease or functional impairments, self-rating scales of which capture valuable information beyond change in primary outcomes. This study ( = 3,384) validated the Brunnsviken Brief Quality of Life Inventory (BBQ) across divergent groups by evaluating its measurement invariance (MI). We hypothesized measurement invariance for the BBQ across age groups, genders, depression, and anxiety severity.
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- Low adherence to online self-guided interventions leads to worse outcomes, with few modifiable factors identified.
- A study is designed in two phases: first, to test a self-efficacy exercise on students to improve adherence; second, to track its impact in a larger group of medical students participating in the Med-Stress Student intervention.
- The expectation is that students who complete the self-efficacy exercise before the intervention will show better adherence and improved outcomes, such as reduced stress and increased work engagement, over time.
Article Synopsis
- A new study looked at a short training program to help stressed workers feel better.
- The early results showed that workers from different jobs can learn ways to recover, lower stress, and have a better life.
- This kind of easy-to-use training could help prevent stress at work in the future, but more studies are needed to find out for sure.
Article Synopsis
- The study evaluated a customized mindfulness-based intervention (MBI, REMIND 2.0) aimed at aiding personal recovery for individuals with mental illness during the COVID-19 pandemic.
- Participants were randomly assigned to either the MBI group or a relaxation training (RT) group, and their progress was measured using various mental health metrics before, after the intervention, and one month later.
- Findings showed that MBI significantly improved personal recovery outcomes compared to RT, with participants reporting sustained benefits except in positive mood, while RT participants experienced a decline in resilience over time.
Article Synopsis
- - The study examined a low-intensity online mindfulness-based intervention (iMBI) aimed at reducing anxiety in university students during the COVID-19 pandemic, involving 134 participants split into two groups: intervention and control.
- - Participants in the intervention group completed 16 online modules and two workshops over eight weeks, with their anxiety and mindfulness levels measured at pre-intervention, post-intervention, and three months later.
- - Results showed the intervention significantly reduced anxiety symptoms and improved mindfulness skills in the intervention group, with effects that remained noticeable at the three-month follow-up.
Hundreds of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) have tested the efficacy of mobile health (mHealth) tools for a wide range of mental and behavioral health outcomes. These RCTs have used a variety of control condition types which dramatically influence the scientific inferences that can be drawn from a given study. Unfortunately, nomenclature across mHealth RCTs is inconsistent and meta-analyses commonly combine control conditions that differ in potentially important ways.
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- A meta-analysis of three psilocybin trials for depression included 102 participants to examine the risk of worsening symptoms after treatment.
- About 10% of participants experienced significant symptom worsening in both the psilocybin and escitalopram groups, compared to 63.6% in the waitlist group.
- The findings suggest that psilocybin is less likely to cause symptom worsening compared to being on a waitlist, but its effects are similar to escitalopram; however, the small sample size needs to be considered for future research.