Effectiveness of Digital Mental Health Tools to Reduce Depressive and Anxiety Symptoms in Low- and Middle-Income Countries: Systematic Review and Meta-analysis
Summary & key facts
The researchers did a large, careful search for studies of digital mental health tools (things like websites, phone apps, text messages, or online therapy) aimed at reducing depression and anxiety in low- and middle-income countries. They only kept randomized controlled trials, which are studies where people are randomly put into a treatment or comparison group. This excerpt shows their search methods and how many records they pulled for screening — hundreds from major databases — but it does not report the final results about whether the digital tools actually reduced symptoms.
- The team searched major medical databases including Cochrane, PubMed, and Embase for digital mental health studies that targeted depression or anxiety in low- and middle-income countries.
- They limited their review to randomized controlled trials, meaning studies where people were randomly assigned to different groups to compare treatments fairly.
- From the Cochrane search they retrieved about 475 records and identified about 445 randomized trials for abstract screening.
- From PubMed they retrieved about 8,500 records and identified about 388 randomized trials for abstract screening.
- From Embase they retrieved about 2,250 records and identified about 325 randomized trials for abstract screening.
- This excerpt describes the search steps and how many studies were found for screening, but it does not include the review’s final findings on whether digital tools reduced depressive or anxiety symptoms.
Abstract
PROSPERO CRD42021289709; https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/prospero/display_record.php?RecordID=289709.
Topics
Digital Mental Health Interventions Impact of Technology on Adolescents Mental Health Research TopicsCategories
Applied Psychology Psychology Social SciencesTags
Anxiety Clinical psychology Developing country Economic growth Economics Internal medicine Low and middle income countries Medicine Mental health Meta-analysis Psychiatry PsychologyConditions & symptoms
Anxiety Depression Anxiety or worry Sadness or low moodReferencing articles
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