Klinisch-psychologische Intervention im Internet

Background

Currently a multitude of Internet-based intervention (IBI) programs exist for various disorders. These programs generally have the potential to reach a wide spectrum of the low threshold population and encourage them to play a more active role in managing individual healthcare. How effective are disorder and problem-specific IBI programs? This review aims to give a systematic overview of controlled evaluation studies available to date and contrast them with the state of research in 2003 (Ott 2003).

Method

References were analyzed in three steps: 1. Research in pertinent international scientific databases using specified keywords (result: more than 1,000 publications since 2003). 2. Selection: exclusion of publications which did not contain empirical evidence of effectiveness (with control group design) (result: 89 studies published between 2003 and 2009 as opposed to 30 up to 2003). 3. Systemization: classification of the analyzed studies based on two dimensions (type of syndrome, function of intervention).

Results

In most of the studies on hand (91.0%) the effectiveness of IBI could be confirmed. Among the methods used cognitive behavioral methods (cognitive, behavioral therapy, CBT) were used almost exclusively. In nearly three quarters of all studies (71.9%), IBI procedures were used for treatment. The remaining studies were on prevention (19.1%) and rehabilitation (9.0%).

Conclusion

Evaluation studies of IBIs are now available, particularly for anxiety disorders, depression, posttraumatic stress disorder, eating disorders including adiposity, substance-related and behavioral medical disorders, psychological problems related to physical illnesses, compulsive gambling and burnout. For each type of disorder, exemplary programs are described. Subsequently the methodical limitations of several of the studies are pointed out.