Digital Interventions May Aid in Reducing Depression Symptoms

Digital interventions accessed through a computer or smartphone were effective at reducing symptoms of depression, according to a meta-analysis published by the American Psychological Association.

The COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated the country’s mental health crisis and telehealth played a significant role in addressing the increased demand for care.

Clinicians also utilized asynchronous digital interventions to help patients improve their mental health. These interventions consisted of patients using an online program, website, or application to individually participate in modules or lessons. Unlike videoconferencing and audio-only telehealth, digital interventions do not include one-on-one synchronous appointments between patients and providers.

“Given the accelerated adoption of digital interventions, it is both timely and important to ask to what extent digital interventions are effective in the treatment of depression, whether they may provide viable alternatives to face-to-face psychotherapy beyond the lab, and what are the key factors that moderate outcomes,” Isaac Moshe, lead author of the meta-analysis and a doctoral candidate at the University of Helsinki, said in the press release.

The researchers analyzed 83 studies to understand if digital interventions were as effective as face-to-face therapy at treating depression and if the inclusion of human support impacted patient health outcomes.

Individuals typically received homework assignments that related to the online modules. Additionally, they completed online questionnaires that were specific to their mental health concerns. Some interventions included human support and clinicians could use the questionnaires and assignments to track patients’ progress. 

The study pools included more than 15,000 participants with mild-to-moderate depression symptoms. All of the studies either compared a digital intervention treatment to an inactive control, such as a waitlist or no treatment, or compared a digital intervention to an active condition, such as normal treatment or face-to-face psychotherapy.

Compared to no treatment at all, digital interventions were effective at alleviating depression symptoms, researchers found. However, there were not enough studies in the meta-analysis to directly compare the digital interventions to face-to-face therapy. Other meta-analyses have suggested that digital interventions do not have as strong an impact on reducing depression symptoms as face-to-face therapy does, the study noted.

Further, the findings noted that the digital interventions that incorporated human support were associated with a greater reduction in depression symptoms. Treatments that included assignment feedback from a clinician or technical assistance were the most effective.

The human component may have motivated individuals to complete the online program, and therapy compliance typically leads to better outcomes, the researchers said.

The researchers also found that the treatments were more effective when they were tested in a lab compared to real-world settings. This may be because only one-in-four participants completed the treatment in full outside a lab setting. 

Mental healthcare services can be difficult to access, primarily due to the lack of trained mental healthcare providers. Using digital interventions may be a potential solution as they can help increase the availability of mental healthcare for those who need it.

“Overall, our findings from effectiveness studies suggest that digital interventions may have a valuable role to play as part of the treatment offering in routine care, especially when accompanied by some sort of human guidance,” Moshe concluded.