A feasibility open trial of guided Internet-delivered cognitive behavioural therapy for anxiety and depression amongst Arab Australians

Abstract

The present study examined the preliminary efficacy and acceptability of a culturally modified therapist-guided cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT) treatment for Arab Australians, aged 18 years and over with symptoms of depression and anxiety. To facilitate ease of use, the treatment was delivered via the Internet (Internet CBT; iCBT). Eleven participants with at least mild symptoms of depression (Patient Health Questionnaire 9-item (PHQ-9) total scores N 4 ) or anxiety (Generalised Anxiety Disorder 7-item (GAD-7) total scores N 4 ) accessed the online Arab Wellbeing Course, which consisted of five online lessons delivered over 8 weeks. Measures of depression, anxiety, distress and disability were gathered at pre-treatment, post-treatment and 3-month follow-up. Data were analysed using mixed-linear model analyses. Ninety-one percent (10/11) of participants completed the five lessons over 8 weeks, with 10/11 providing post-treatment and 3-month follow-up data. Participants improved significantly across all outcome measures, with large within-group effect sizes based on estimated marginal means (Cohen's d) at post-treatment (d = 1.08 to 1.74) and 3-month follow-up (d = 1.53 to 2.00). The therapist spent an average of 90.72 min (SD = 28.98) in contact, in total, with participants during the trial. Participants rated the Arab Wellbeing Course as acceptable. Caution is needed in interpreting the results of the current study given the small sample size employed, raising questions about the impact of levels of acculturation and the absence of a control group. However, the results are encouraging and indicate that, with minor modifications, western psychological interventions have the potential to be of benefit to English speaking Arab immigrants.

An E-Platform for Rehabilitation of Persons With Hearing Problems

“…The platform has been designed having in mind all the security requirements for online treatments, from the physical infrastructure to the software development. These requirements in Sweden are quite similar to the ones in other countries (Bennett, Bennett, & Griffiths, 2010;Kayrouz et al, 2014):…”

Strengths-based CBT: Internet-Based Versus Face-to-Face Therapy in A Randomized Controlled Trial

“…Before intervention, groups did not differ in age (F [2,91] 40, p<0.05). While there were no significant group differences for any dimension, rANCOVAs showed significant group × time interaction effects for depression (BDI-II) and resilience (RS-11; Table 1).…”

“…Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) has been shown to be very helpful in a variety of mental disorders [1]. Although CBT in an internet-based setting (I-CBT) is a comparatively new treatment approach, various studies and reviews point to its efficacy in decreasing symptoms of for example depression [2][3][4], anxiety disorders [5][6][7], insomnia [8] or posttraumatic stress disorder [9]. Moreover, there is growing evidence for a similar effectiveness of I-CBT compared to faceto-face CBT (FTF-CBT) for a broad variety of psychiatric and somatic disorders [10].…”

A pilot study of self-guided internet-delivered cognitive behavioural therapy for anxiety and depression among Arabs

“…While the use of such interventions has considerable meta-analytic support in predominantly Western samples (e.g., Andersson et al, 2014 , Andrews et al, 2010 , van Ballegooijen et al, 2014 ), there is emerging evidence to indicate their potential in Arab populations. For example, several small but promising trials have recently demonstrated that Arab people can benefit from iCBT interventions ( Kayrouz et al, 2015 , Knaevelsrud et al, 2015 , Wagner et al, 2012 ). Among these, Knaevelsrud et al (2015) provided therapist-guided online treatment for Iraqis ( n = 47) with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and reported that 62% of those in a treatment group had recovered from post-traumatic stress symptoms at post-treatment, and that gains were maintained at three month follow up.…”