One-year follow-up results of a randomized controlled clinical trial on internet-based cognitive behavioural therapy for subthreshold depression in people over 50 years.
BACKGROUND
Internet-based cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT) is a promising new approach for the treatment of depressive symptoms. The current study had two aims: (1) to determine whether, after 1 year, an internet-based CBT intervention was more effective than a waiting-list control group; and (2) to determine whether the effect of the internet-based CBT differed from the group CBT intervention, 1 year after the start of treatment.


METHODS
A total of 191 women and 110 men (mean age=55 years, s.d.=4.6) with subthreshold depression were randomized into internet-based treatment, group CBT (Lewinsohn's Coping with Depression Course), or a waiting-list control condition. The main outcome measure was treatment response after 1 year, defined as the difference in pretreatment and follow-up scores on the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI). Missing data were imputed using the multiple imputation procedure of data augmentation. Analyses were performed using multiple imputation inference.


RESULTS
In the waiting-list control group, we found a pretreatment to follow-up improvement effect size of 0.69, which was 0.62 in the group CBT condition and 1.22 with the internet-based treatment condition. Simple contrasts showed a significant difference between the waiting-list condition and internet-based treatment (p=0.03) and no difference between both treatment conditions (p=0.08).


CONCLUSIONS
People aged over 50 years with subthreshold depression can still benefit from internet-based CBT 1 year after the start of treatment.
Spek
V
V
Department of Psychology and Health, Tilburg University, The Netherlands. v.r.m.spek@uvt.nl
Cuijpers
P
P
Nyklícek
I
I
Smits
N
N
Riper
H
H
Keyzer
J
J
Pop
V
V
D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000368:Aged; D015928:Cognitive Behavioral Therapy / Q000379:methods*; D003866:Depressive Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology / Q000628:therapy*; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D020407:Internet; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010555:Personality Inventory; D013813:Therapy, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods*