The Efficacy and Usability of an Unguided Web-Based Grief Intervention for Adults Who Lost a Loved One During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Randomized Controlled Trial (Preprint)

Abstract

BACKGROUND The death of loved ones during the COVID-19 pandemic was a challenge people faced in this historical period. Although grief for most people is a natural process that resolves itself, for some, it becomes a painful process with clinical correlates that may require professional help for its resolution. We developed an unguided online psychological intervention to provide psychological support to people who lost a loved one during the COVID-19 pandemic. OBJECTIVE The main objective of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of online treatment in reducing clinical symptoms of complicated grief, depression, post-traumatic stress, hopelessness, anxiety, and suicidal risk in adults. METHODS We used a randomized controlled trial with an intervention group and a waiting list control group. The groups were assessed three times (before entering, after finishing the intervention, and three months later). As a secondary aim, we evaluated the usability of the system. RESULTS For the intervention group, the results indicated that treatment significantly reduced baseline clinical symptoms for all variables, with larger effect sizes for depression, hopelessness, grief, anxiety, and risk of suicide (all effect sizes ≥ 0.5). The participants in the control group significantly decreased hopelessness levels after the waiting list but increased their suicidal risk scores. The follow-up evaluation showed that symptom reduction was maintained. Participants rated the intervention as a highly usability system. CONCLUSIONS These results show the importance of developing online psychological tools to reduce clinical symptoms in people going through a grief process derived from the loss of a loved one in times of pandemic. CLINICALTRIAL Trial Registration: The study is registered in Clinical trials (NCT04638842).