The Effect of Computerized Cognitive Behavioral Therapy on People's Anxiety and Depression During the 6 Months of Wuhan's Lockdown of COVID-19 Epidemic: A Pilot Study

Abstract

Background: The effectiveness of computerized cognitive behavioral therapy (CCBT) has been proven for mild and moderate anxiety and depression. In 2016, the first official Chinese CCBT system was launched by Chinese Cognitive Behavior Therapy Professional Organizations and included four items: getting out of depression, overcoming anxiety, staying away from insomnia and facing Obsessive-compulsive disorder. During the COVID-19 epidemic, Chinese CCBT system served the public for free. This study explored the effects of CCBT on anxiety and depression by comparing the use of the platform during the epidemic and during the same period in 2019.Methods: Users were divided into a depression group or an anxiety group according to their own discretion. The subjects used the self-rating anxiety scale (SAS) and self-rating depression scale (SDS) before each training. Each training group completed the corresponding CCBT training project, which had 5–6 training sessions, an average of once every 5 days. The training content in 2019 and 2020 was identical. This study compared the demographic characteristics, depression, and anxiety levels of CCBT platform users during the lockdown period in Wuhan (LP2020), where the outbreak was concentrated in China, from January 23 to July 23, 2020 and the same period in 2019 (SP2019).Result: (1) There were significant differences in gender (χ2 = 7.215, P = 0.007), region (χ2 = 4.225, P = 0.040) and duration of illness (χ2 = 7.867, P = 0.049) between the two periods. (2) There was a positive Pearson correlation between the number of users of CCBT platform during LP2020 and number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 in each province (r = 0.9429, P < 0.001). (3) In LP2020, the SAS (t = 2.579, P = 0.011) and SDS (t = 2.894, P = 0.004) scores at T0 in Hubei were significantly higher than those in other regions. (4) The CCBT platform has an obvious effect on anxiety (F = 4.74, P = 0.009) and depression on users (F = 4.44, P = 0.009).Conclusion: This study showed women, students and people who are more seriously affected by the epidemic were more likely to accept the CCBT training. The CCBT platform made a significant contribution toward alleviating the anxiety and depression symptoms of users during the epidemic. When face-to-face psychotherapy is not available during the epidemic, CCBT can be used as an effective alternative.

The Effectiveness of Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy Courses in Improving the Emergency Medicine Residents and Interns’ Ability to Regulate their Emotions in Threatening or Stressful Events

“…The results indicated that 96% of the participants were satisfied with the CBT course and liked cognitive-behavioral training. This result is consistent with those of previous studies,[ 17 18 19 20 ] which showed that CBT can reduce using non-adaptive strategies to control stress in nurses. [ 21 ] Ebert et al .…”

The effect of cognitive‐behavioral therapy on death anxiety and depression in patients with heart failure: A quasi‐experimental study

“…Another aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of CBT on depression in patients with heart failure. The results of our study showed that CBT had a positive effect on reducing depression in patients with heart failure, which was in line with those reported by Lv et al (2021), Liu et al (2021), A‐Tjak et al (2021), and Humphries et al (2021). A review of the literature showed that the effect of this therapeutic intervention on depression in patients with CVDs, especially in those with heart failure, was not well addressed.…”

“…Lv et al (2021),Liu et al (2021),A-Tjak et al (2021),and Humphries et al (2021). A review of the literature showed that the effect of this therapeutic intervention on depression in patients with CVDs, especially in those with heart failure, was not well addressed.Therefore, more studies are needed to evaluate the efficacy of this psychotherapy method and the consistency of its effect in reducing depression among patients with heart failure(Gao et al, 2019;Jeyanantham et al, 2017).…”

The effect of cognitive behavior therapy on anxiety and depression during COVID-19 pandemic: a systematic review and meta-analysis

“…al [ 29 ] study was not available, we emailed the authors but we did not receive any response; so this article was not included in the present study. In addition, two of the articles including Oehler et al study [ 30 ] due to lack of anxiety scores before and after the intervention and LV et al study [ 31 ] because of presenting insufficient data were excluded from the study. Finally, 11 articles were entered into the study (Fig.…”

“…In addition, the most of the included studies did not clearly stated their methods of randomization and so were placed in unclear risk level in terms of randomization bias, just one study [ 39 ] was low risk in this regard. In none of the studies blinding was performed, however, in just one study [ 31 ], analyzer’s blinding was done. Of other weaknesses of the included studies was their different inclusion criteria, for instance, some of the studies were conducted on people infected with coronavirus, some on people having a history of depression and anxiety, and some on people not infected with coronavirus.…”