Computerised cognitive behavioural therapy (cCBT) programmes differ widely but have rarely been evaluated separately through meta-analysis. Through a meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials, we investigated the effectiveness of 'Deprexis', an… Click to show full abstract
Computerised cognitive behavioural therapy (cCBT) programmes differ widely but have rarely been evaluated separately through meta-analysis. Through a meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials, we investigated the effectiveness of 'Deprexis', an unconventional and individually-tailored cCBT programme for depression. Comparisons from eight studies (N = 2402) demonstrated the effectiveness of Deprexis for depressive symptoms at post-intervention, with a medium effect size (g = 0.54, 95% CI: 0.39-0.69). Analogous results arose when study quality, screening, and randomisation procedure were taken into account. The level of guidance provided alongside Deprexis had a statistically non-significant impact upon the effect size. There was no significant difference in the performance of Deprexis in developer-led trials compared with non-developer trials, and no publication bias was detected. The weighted-average dropout rate for participants allocated to Deprexis treatment arms in included studies was 26.5%. Based primarily on trials in naturalistic community settings, the findings support the effectiveness of Deprexis for depressive symptoms. The positive findings add to the growing evidence-base for individually-tailored cCBT programmes and point to the need for further investigations of apparent systematic differences in the effectiveness of specific cCBT programmes.
               
Click one of the above tabs to view related content.