Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Meta-Analysis
. 2011;6(6):e21274.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0021274. Epub 2011 Jun 21.

Self-guided psychological treatment for depressive symptoms: a meta-analysis

Pim Cuijpers  1 , Tara Donker, Robert Johansson, David C Mohr, Annemieke van Straten, Gerhard Andersson
Affiliations
Meta-Analysis

Self-guided psychological treatment for depressive symptoms: a meta-analysis

Pim Cuijpers et al. PLoS One. 2011.

Abstract

Background: A number of trials have examined the effects of self-guided psychological intervention, without any contact between the participants and a therapist or coach. The results and sizes of these trials have been mixed. This is the first quantitative meta-analysis, aimed at organizing and evaluating the literature, and estimating effect size.

Method: We conducted systematic literature searches in PubMed, PsycINFO and Embase up to January 2010, and identified additional studies through earlier meta-analyses, and the references of included studies. We identified seven randomized controlled trials that met our inclusion criteria, with a total of 1,362 respondents. The overall quality of the studies was high. A post-hoc power calculation showed that the studies had sufficient statistical power to detect an effect size of d = 0.19.

Results: The overall mean effect size indicating the difference between self-guided psychological treatment and control groups at post-test was d = 0.28 (p<0.001), which corresponds to a NNT of 6.41. At 4 to 12 months follow-up the effect size was d = 0.23. There was no indication for significant publication bias.

Conclusions: We found evidence that self-guided psychological treatment has a small but significant effect on participants with increased levels of depressive symptomatology.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1. Flowchart of inclusion of studies.
Figure 2
Figure 2. Standardized effect sizes of self-guided psychological treatment for adult depression: Cohen's d.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Gellatly J, Bower P, Hennessy S, Richards, Gilbody S, et al. What makes self-help interventions effective in the management of depressive symptoms? Meta-analysis and meta-regression. Psychol Med. 2007;37:1217–1228. - PubMed
    1. Gregory R, Canning S, Lee T, Wise J. Cognitive Bibliotherapy for Depression: A Meta-Analysis. Prof Psychol Res Pract. 2004;35:275–280.
    1. Menchola M, Arkowitz HS, Burke BL. Efficacy of self-administered treatments for depression and anxiety. Prof Psychol Res Pract. 2007;38:421–429.
    1. Cuijpers P. Bibliotherapy in unipolar depression. J Behav Ther Exp Psychiatry. 1997;28:139–147. - PubMed
    1. Hirai M, Clum GA. A meta-analytic study of self-help interventions for anxiety problems. Behav Ther. 2006;37:99–111. - PubMed

Publication types