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Summary: Cognitive behavioural therapy for insomnia is efficacious and recommended for insomnia, but availability is scarce. Cognitive behavioural therapy for insomnia self‐help interventions could increase availability, especially if unguided. Optimizing cognitive behavioural therapy for insomnia methods and system user‐friendliness, we developed a short, digital, self‐help programme—FastAsleep—based on the behavioural components of sleep restriction and stimulus control. This study investigated its feasibility and preliminary effects. Thirty media‐recruited participants with moderate to severe insomnia were assessed via telephone before using FastAsleep for 4 weeks, and were interviewed afterwards. Self‐ratings with web questionnaires were conducted at screening, pre‐, mid‐ and post‐treatment, and at 3‐month follow‐up. Primary outcomes were feasibility (credibility, adherence, system user‐friendliness and adverse effects), and secondary outcomes were changes in symptom severity (insomnia, depression and anxiety). Adherence was generally high, participants' feasibility ratings were favourable, and adverse effects matched previously reported levels for cognitive behavioural therapy for insomnia. Symptoms of insomnia decreased after the treatment period (Hedge's g = 1.79, 95% confidence interval = 1.20–2.39), as did symptoms of depression and anxiety. FastAsleep can be considered feasible and promising for alleviating insomnia symptoms among patients fit for self‐care. Future controlled trials are needed to establish the efficacy of FastAsleep and its suitability in a stepped care model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Atopic dermatitis (AD) is a common and debilitating inflammatory dermatological disorder and is marked by itch and inflamed skin. Scratching, sleep loss, and avoidance of situations associated with more AD symptoms are central hypothesized mechanisms that perpetuate the disorder and cause reduced quality of life. We developed an exposure-based cognitive behavioral treatment (CBT) that entailed mindfulness practice as a means to increase tolerance for aversive experiences during exposure. The aim of the present study was to test the treatment's acceptability and preliminary efficacy in adults with AD. We used an uncontrolled pretest-posttest design and recruited participants (N = 9) from a university hospital dermatological clinic. The treatment comprised 10 weekly sessions over 10 weeks and assessments of AD symptoms as well as psychiatric symptoms and quality of life were conducted at baseline, posttreatment and 6-month follow-up. The results showed significant and large baseline to posttreatment improvements on self-reported measures of AD symptoms (p =.020) and general anxiety (p =.005), but there was no significant improvement in depression or quality of life. Treatment satisfaction was high and a majority of participants (67%) completed the treatment. We conclude that exposure-based CBT for adult AD can be feasible, acceptable, and potentially efficacious. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: This study aimed to demonstrate proof of concept for an adaptive treatment strategy in Internet-delivered cognitive-behavioral therapy (ICBT), where risk of treatment failure is assessed early in treatment and treatment for at-risk patients is adapted to prevent treatment failure.Methods: A semiautomated algorithm assessed risk of treatment failure early in treatment in 251 patients undergoing ICBT for insomnia with therapist guidance. At-risk patients were randomly assigned to continue standard ICBT or to receive adapted ICBT. The primary outcome was self-rated insomnia symptoms using the Insomnia Severity Index in a linear mixed-effects model. The main secondary outcome was treatment failure (having neither responded nor remitted at the posttreatment assessment).Results: A total of 102 patients were classified as at risk and randomly assigned to receive adapted ICBT (N=51) or standard ICBT (N=51); 149 patients were classified as not at risk. Patients not at risk had significantly greater score reductions on the Insomnia Severity Index than at-risk patients given standard ICBT. Adapted ICBT for at-risk patients was significantly more successful in reducing symptoms compared with standard ICBT, and it decreased the risk of failing treatment (odds ratio=0.33). At-risk patients receiving adapted ICBT were not more likely to experience treatment failure than those not at risk (odds ratio=0.51), though they were less likely to experience remission. Adapted treatment required, on average, 14 more minutes of therapist-patient time per remaining week.Conclusions: An adaptive treatment strategy can increase treatment effects for at-risk patients and reduce the number of failed treatments. Future studies should improve accuracy in classification algorithms and identify key factors that boost the effect of adapted treatments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Importance: It is unclear whether d-cycloserine (DCS), a partial N-methyl-d-aspartate agonist that enhances fear extinction, can augment the effects of exposure-based cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) for obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). Objectives: To examine whether DCS augments the effects of CBT for OCD and to explore (post hoc) whether concomitant antidepressant medication moderates the effects of DCS. Design, Setting, and Participants: A 12-week, double-blind randomized clinical trial with 3-month follow-up conducted at an academic medical center between September 4, 2012, and September 26, 2013. Participants included 128 adult outpatients with a primary diagnosis of OCD and a Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale (Y-BOCS) score of 16 or higher. Concurrent antidepressant medication was permitted if the dose had been stable for at least 2 months prior to enrollment and remained unchanged during the trial. The main analysis was by intention-to-treat population. Interventions: All participants received a previously validated Internet-based CBT protocol over 12 weeks and were randomized to receive either 50 mg of DCS or placebo, administered 1 hour before each of 5 exposure and response prevention tasks. Main Outcomes and Measures: Clinician-administered Y-BOCS score at week 12 and at 3-month follow-up. Remission was defined as a score of 12 or lower on the Y-BOCS. Results: In the primary intention-to-treat analyses, DCS did not augment the effects of CBT compared with placebo (mean [SD] clinician-rated Y-BOCS score, DCS: 13.86 [6.50] at week 12 and 12.35 [7.75] at 3-month follow-up; placebo: 11.77 [5.95] at week 12 and 12.37 [6.68] at 3-month follow-up) but showed a significant interaction with antidepressants (clinician-rated Y-BOCS, B = -1.08; Z = -2.79; P = .005). Post hoc analyses revealed that antidepressants significantly impaired treatment response in the DCS group but not the placebo group, at both posttreatment and follow-up (clinician-rated Y-BOCS: t62 = -3.00; P = .004; and t61 = -3.49; P < .001, respectively). In the DCS group, a significantly greater proportion of antidepressant-free patients achieved remission status at follow-up (60% [95% CI, 45%-74%]) than antidepressant-medicated patients (24% [95% CI, 9%-48%]) (P = .008). Antidepressants had no effect in the placebo group (50% [95% CI, 36%-64%] remission rate in both groups). Conclusions and Relevance: The findings suggest that antidepressants may interact with DCS to block its facilitating effect on fear extinction. Use of DCS may be a promising CBT augmentation strategy but only in antidepressant-free patients with OCD. Trial Registration: clinicaltrials.gov Identifier: NCT01649895. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) has been shown to be an effective treatment for specific phobia in youth, but not all affected seek or receive treatment. Internet-delivered CBT could be a way to increase the availability of empirically supported treatments.Aims: An open trial was conducted to evaluate Internet-delivered CBT for children with specific phobia.Method: Children (N = 30) aged 8–12, and their parents, with a principal diagnosis of specific phobia were recruited through media advertisement. Participants received six weeks of Internet-delivered CBT with therapist support. The treatment was aimed for the parents and the children, with the first part being only for the parents. The primary outcome measure was the Clinician Severity Rating (CSR), and secondary measures included clinician-rated global functioning and child- and parent-reported anxiety and quality of life. All assessments were made at pretreatment, posttreatment, and three-month follow-up.Results: At posttreatment, there were significant reductions on the CSR, with a large within-group effect size (Cohen'sd = 1.0) and 35% of children no longer meeting criteria for specific phobia. Self-report measures from parents and children showed significant effects on anxiety, with small to moderate effect sizes. Effects were maintained at three-month follow-up.Conclusions: Results show that Internet-delivered CBT with therapist support for children with specific phobia has the potential to reduce symptom severity. Randomized controlled trials are needed to further evaluate this treatment format. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Abstract: Internet-based cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) for severe health anxiety can be effective, but not all patients achieve full remission. Under these circumstances, knowledge about predictors is essential for the clinician in order to make reliable treatment recommendations. The primary aim of this study was to investigate clinical, demographic, and therapy process-related predictors of Internet-based CBT for severe health anxiety. We performed three types of analyses on data from a sample comprising participants (N = 81) who had received Internet-based CBT in a randomized controlled trial. Outcomes were a) end state health anxiety, b) improvement in health anxiety (continuous change scores), and c) clinically significant improvement. Outcomes were assessed at six-month follow-up. The results showed that the most stable predictors of both end state health anxiety and improvement were baseline health anxiety and depressive symptoms. Treatment adherence, i.e. the number of completed treatment modules, also significantly predicted outcome. Notably, health anxiety at baseline was positively associated with symptom improvement while depressive symptoms was negatively related to improvement. Demographic factors were largely without significant impact on end state symptoms or improvement. We conclude that baseline symptom burden and adherence to treatment have strong predictive effects in Internet-based CBT for severe health anxiety. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Background: Hypochondriasis, characterised by severe health anxiety, is a common condition associated with functional disability. Cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT) is an effective but not widely disseminated treatment for hypochondriasis. Internet-based CBT, including guidance in the form of minimal therapist contact via email, could be a more accessible treatment, but no study has investigated internet-based CBT for hypochondriasis.Aims: To investigate the efficacy of internet-based CBT for hypochondriasis.Method: A randomised controlled superiority trial with masked assessment comparing internet-based CBT (n = 40) over 12 weeks with an attention control condition (n = 41) for people with hypochondriasis. The primary outcome measure was the Health Anxiety Inventory. This trial is registrated with ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT00828152).Results: Participants receiving internet-based CBT made large and superior improvements compared with the control group on measures of health anxiety (between-group Cohen's d range 1.52-1.62).Conclusions: Internet-based CBT is an efficacious treatment for hypochondriasis that has the potential to increase accessibility and availability of CBT for hypochodriasis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and Aims: Cognitive behavioral group therapy (CBGT) is an effective, well-established, but not widely available treatment for social anxiety disorder (SAD). Internet-based cognitive behavior therapy (ICBT) has the potential to increase availability and facilitate dissemination of therapeutic services for SAD. However, ICBT for SAD has not been directly compared with in-person treatments such as CBGT and few studies investigating ICBT have been conducted in clinical settings. Our aim was to investigate if ICBT is at least as effective as CBGT for SAD when treatments are delivered in a psychiatric setting. Methods: We conducted a randomized controlled non-inferiority trial with allocation to ICBT (n = 64) or CBGT (n = 62) with blinded assessment immediately following treatment and six months post-treatment. Participants were 126 individuals with SAD who received CBGT or ICBT for a duration of 15 weeks. The Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale (LSAS) was the main outcome measure. The following non-inferiority margin was set: following treatment, the lower bound of the 95 % confidence interval (CI) of the mean difference between groups should be less than 10 LSAS-points. Results: Both groups made large improvements. At follow-up, 41 (64%) participants in the ICBT group were classified as responders (95% CI, 52%-76%). In the CBGT group, 28 participants (45%) responded to the treatment (95% CI, 33%-58%). At post-treatment and follow-up respectively, the 95 % CI of the LSAS mean difference was 0.68-17.66 (Cohen's d between group = 0.41) and 22.51-15.69 (Cohen's d between group = 0.36) favoring ICBT, which was well within the non-inferiority margin. Mixed effects models analyses showed no significant interaction effect for LSAS, indicating similar improvement across treatments (F = 1.58; df = 2, 219; p = .21). Conclusions: ICBT delivered in a psychiatric setting can be as effective as CBGT in the treatment of SAD and could be used to increase availability to CBT. Trial Registration: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT00564967 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) is highly prevalent and is associated with a substantial economic burden. Cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) has been shown to be effective in treating IBS. The aim of this study was to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of a new treatment alternative, internet-delivered CBT based on exposure and mindfulness exercises. Methods: Participants (N = 85) with IBS were recruited through self-referral and were assessed via a telephone interview and self-report measures on the internet. Participants were randomized to internet-delivered CBT or to a discussion forum. Economic data was assessed at pre-, post- and at 3-month and 1 year follow-up. Results: Significant cost reductions were found for the treatment group at $16,806 per successfully treated case. The cost reductions were mainly driven by reduced work loss in the treatment group. Results were sustained at 3-month and 1 year follow-up. Conclusions: Internet-delivered CBT appears to generate health gains in IBS treatment and is associated with costsavings from a societal perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Panic disorder with or without agoraphobia (PD/A) is common and can be treated effectively with selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) medication or cognitive-behaviour therapy (CBT). However, the lack of access to CBT services has motivated the development of self-help approaches requiring less therapist contact. A novel treatment modality in this field, showing efficacy in several randomized trials but until now not evaluated within the context of regular psychiatric care, is Internet-based treatment. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the effectiveness of Internet-based CBT for patients in a psychiatric setting. Twenty consecutively referred patients with PD were included in the study. A structured clinical interview with a psychiatrist was conducted for inclusion, as well as at post-treatment and at the 6-month follow-up. The treatment consisted of a 10-week CBT-based self-help programme, including minimal therapist support by e-mail. At post-treatment, 94% of patients no longer met DSM-IV criteria for PD (82% at 6-month follow-up). The within-group effect sizes (for the main outcome PDSS; Panic Disorder Severity Scale) were Cohen's d=2.5 (pre- to post-treatment) and 2.8 (pre-treatment to follow-up), respectively. The proportion of responders on the PDSS was 75% at post-treatment and 70% at 6-month follow-up. The results supports earlier efficacy data on Internet-based CBT for PD and indicates that it is effective also within a regular psychiatric setting. However, a larger randomized controlled trial should be conducted, directly comparing Internet-based CBT with traditionally administered CBT within such a setting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights from the article: B Abstract: b Major depressive disorder (MDD) is heritable and a leading cause of disability. Cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) is an effective treatment for MDD. Linear mixed-effect models were used to test the relationships between the six GRSs and CBT treatment outcomes.

The aim of this study was to compare guided Internet-delivered to group-delivered cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) for insomnia. We conducted an 8-week randomized controlled non-inferiority trial with 6-months follow-up. Participants were forty-eight adults with insomnia, recruited via media. Interventions were guided Internet-delivered CBT (ICBT) and group-delivered CBT (GCBT) for insomnia. Primary outcome measure was the Insomnia Severity Index (ISI), secondary outcome measures were sleep diary data, depressive symptoms, response- and remission rates. Both treatment groups showed significant improvements and large effect sizes for ISI (Within Cohen's d : ICBT post = 1.8, 6-months follow-up = 2.1; GCBT post = 2.1, 6-months follow-up = 2.2). Confidence interval of the difference between groups post-treatment and at FU6 indicated non-inferiority of ICBT compared to GCBT. At post-treatment, two thirds of patients in both groups were considered responders (ISI-reduction > 7p). Using diagnostic criteria, 63% (ICBT) and 75% (GCBT) were in remission. Sleep diary data showed moderate to large effect sizes. We conclude that both guided Internet-CBT and group-CBT in this study were efficacious with regard to insomnia severity, sleep parameters and depressive symptoms. The results are in line with previous research, and strengthen the evidence for guided Internet-CBT for insomnia. Trial registration The study protocol was approved by, and registered with, the regional ethics review board in Linköping, Sweden, registration number 2010/385-31. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Background: Efficacy of guided Internet-based cognitive behaviour therapy (ICBT) for depression has been demonstrated in several randomised controlled trials. Knowledge on the effectiveness of the treatment, i.e. how it works when delivered within routine care, is however scarce. The aim of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of ICBT for depression. Methods: We conducted a cohort study investigating all patients (N=1203) who had received guided ICBT for depression between 2007 and 2013 in a routine care setting at an outpatient psychiatric clinic providing Internet-based treatment. The primary outcome measure was the Montgomery Åsberg Depression Rating Scale-Self rated (MADRS-S). Results: Patients made large improvements from pre-treatment assessments to post-treatment on the primary outcome (effect size d on the MADRS-S=1.27, 99% CI, 1.14–1.39). Participants were significantly improved in terms of suicidal ideation and sleep difficulties. Improvements were sustained at 6-month follow-up. Limitations: Attrition was rather large at 6-month follow-up. However, additional data was collected through telephone interviews with dropouts and advanced statistical models indicated that missing data did not bias the findings. Conclusions: ICBT for depression can be highly effective when delivered within the context of routine psychiatric care. This study suggests that the effect sizes are at least as high when the treatment is delivered in routine psychiatric care by qualified staff as when delivered in a controlled trial setting. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) is a serious, but treatable, disorder where Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) is a first line treatment. However, a significant number of patients (40–60%) are not responding to treatment and understanding more about the disorder and who responds to treatment is crucial to improve outcomes. In the past year, there have been marked advances in the genomics of MDD thanks to large consortia GWAS efforts. Here we leverage summary statistics derived from the latest MDD GWAS in order to test whether individual MDD polygenic risk scores (PRS) associate with baseline severity and CBT response in a sample of 971 MDD cases undergoing internet-based CBT (iCBT). Our aim is to calculate MDD Polygenic Risk Scores (PRS) and examine their relationship with a key measure of disease severity and treatment response with longitudinal follow up data. We collected DNA from 971 Swedish MDD cases (66% female) who took part in a 12-week course of iCBT. The primary outcome variable was the Montgomery Åsberg Depression Rating Scale – Self-rating (MADRS-S) and was measured pre-treatment, weekly, post treatment and at 6 months follow-up. For genotyping, the Illumina Global Screening Array (GSA) was used for the 971 samples. For population-specific controls, we will calculate MDD PRS for a set of 3,000 Swedish individuals with no history of MDD. We use the latest MDD summary statistics to calculate PRS for each individual to examine the relationship between polygenic load and a key measure of disease severity and treatment response. Further, we calculate PRS for a range of other traits which may influence disease severity or treatment response: neuroticism, bipolar disorder, subjective well-being and educational attainment. We will present results detailing the relationship between MDD PRS and disease severity (baseline MADRS) as well as treatment response (change in MADRS following iCBT) and treatment adherence. Further, we will present results demonstrating how PRS for a range of other traits influence disease severity or treatment response. In other psychiatric disorders, such as schizophrenia, polygenic risk score analyses and treatment response of pharmacological interventions have been investigated with interesting outcomes. In our future work, we will contrast genetic predictors with non-genetic predictors derived from the Swedish registers (e.g. pre- and perinatal risk factors), to try to understand even more about the biological underpinnings of MDD and response to treatment. We believe performing these analyses will bring us one step closer to determining whether genomics can help personalize MDD treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]