Internet-delivered psychological interventions for clinical anxiety and depression in perinatal women: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Mental disorder in pregnancy and the early postpartum

“…The greatest evidence exists for use of cognitive‐behavioural or interpersonal therapies for postnatal depression [14,15] but there is growing evidence of antenatal effectiveness. There is also evidence that therapies can remain effective when modified to be self‐directed or internet‐based [16,17]. Psychological interventions may be used to prevent the onset of postnatal depression [14] and are also effective when used to treat perinatal anxiety disorders [15,17].…”

“…There is also evidence that therapies can remain effective when modified to be self‐directed or internet‐based [16,17]. Psychological interventions may be used to prevent the onset of postnatal depression [14] and are also effective when used to treat perinatal anxiety disorders [15,17].…”

Advances in virtual care for perinatal mental disorders

“…A recent meta-analytic review (including five randomized controlled trials) found that therapist-assisted web-based psychological interventions may also be an effective option for the treatment of perinatal depressive and anxiety symptoms, with medium-sized effects 6 . This is a highly attractive model clinically, as this type of intervention is more efficient than 1:1 live interactions, in that one clinician may be able to support more women in a specified time period, and women can work on their exercises during their own time, thus reducing the challenge of finding specific times for therapy on a continual basis.…”

“…Even subtle differences in intervention design, application and dosage can impact acceptability, adherence and efficacy. For example, there is evidence to suggest that therapist-facilitated webbased psychological treatment is associ-ated with high attrition when low-intensity online coaching is provided, but retention rates improve significantly when modified to telephone-based coaching 6 .…”

Internet-based cognitive–behavioural therapy for prevention of depression during pregnancy and in the post partum (iPDP): a protocol for a large-scale randomised controlled trial

“…With respect to universal prevention, fully automated internet-based CBT (iCBT) is preferable to face-to-face or guided iCBT in terms of accessibility, anonymity and cost effectiveness. 16 Although a systematic review showed a positive effect of iCBT for the improvement of perinatal depressive symptoms, 17 to our knowledge, there have been only two RCTs for universal prevention using automated iCBT during pregnancy. 18 19 These two studies did not assess the major depressive episode (MDE); instead, they used depressive symptoms as outcomes.…”