Cited by 39Digital Mental Health InterventionsObsessive-Compulsive Spectrum DisordersHealth Systems, Economic Evaluations, Quality of Life

Cost-effectiveness of internet-delivered vs in-person cognitive behavioral therapy for children and adolescents with obsessive-compulsive disorder

Open access
Aspvall, Kristina, Sampaio, Filipa, Lenhard, Fabian, Melin, Karin, Norlin, Lisa, Serlachius, Eva, Mataix-Cols, David, Andersson, Erik·2021·JAMA Network Open

Abstract

Importance: Therapist-guided, internet-delivered cognitive behavioral therapy is an effective treatment option for children and adolescents with obsessive-compulsive disorder, but to our knowledge, its cost-effectiveness compared with traditional in-person treatment has not been established. Objective: To evaluate the cost-effectiveness of guided internet-delivered cognitive behavioral therapy implemented within a stepped-care model compared with in-person cognitive behavioral therapy for young people with obsessive-compulsive disorder. Design, Setting, and Participants: This economic evaluation of a randomized noninferiority trial conducted at 2 specialist obsessive-compulsive disorder clinics in Sweden enrolled 152 children and adolescents aged 8 to 17 years with obsessive-compulsive disorder, mainly through clinician referrals (110 [72%]). Recruitment began October 6, 2017, and ended May 24, 2019. Follow-up ended April 14, 2020. Interventions: Participants were randomly assigned to receive either guided internet-delivered cognitive behavioral therapy or in-person cognitive behavioral therapy during a 16-week period. At the 3-month follow-up, nonresponders in both groups were offered additional in-person cognitive behavior therapy sessions. Main Outcomes and Measures: Health outcomes were treatment response rates (primary outcome), remission rates, and quality-adjusted life-years. Cost data were collected before treatment, after treatment, at 3-month follow-up, and at 6-month follow-up (primary end point) and are presented in 2020 US dollars. The differences in incremental costs and health outcomes were compared between the groups and presented from the health care professional, health care sector, and societal perspectives. Results: A total of 152 participants (94 girls [62%]; mean [SD] age, 13.4 [2.5] years) were randomized; 151 (99%) completed the trial. At the 6-month follow-up, 50 of 74 participants (68%) in the stepped-care group and 52 of 77 participants (68%) in the in-person cognitive behavioral therapy group were classified as treatment responders (odds ratio, 1.00 [95% CI, 0.51-1.98]; P = .99). Health economic analyses showed that the stepped-care group used fewer therapist resources than the in-person cognitive behavioral therapy group, resulting in a mean cost savings of $2104 (95% CI, $1202-$3006) per participant for the full study period of 10 months, corresponding to a relative savings of 39%. The cost savings remained largely comparable when taking wider health care sector and societal perspectives. Conclusions and Relevance: This study suggests that, for young people with obsessive-compulsive disorder, a low-cost digital intervention followed by in-person treatment for nonresponders was cost-effective compared with in-person cognitive behavior therapy alone.

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2021.18516

Cites

40 of 40 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Claims the paper makes

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

  • Online training is generally more cost-effective than in-person sessions.

    “Additionally, online training is generally more cost-effective than in-person sessions (22–25).”

    From Digital resilience interventions for healthcare workers: a systematic review (2025) · cites this paper as [22]

    The Discussion and Conclusions report that internet-delivered CBT followed by in-person therapy for nonresponders was more cost-effective than in-person CBT alone for young people with OCD. The source does not establish that online training in general is more cost-effective than in-person sessions, or that online treatment alone has the same effectiveness as the stepped-care approach. (LLM, conf=0.86)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured

Self-check

Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.

The self-check needs the paper’s full text.

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

2 of the 42 references couldn’t be matched to a known paper.

Research works printed but not linked: 2

  1. [9]National Institute for Health and Care Excellence. Obsessive-compulsive disorder and body dysmorphic disorder: treatment. Clinical guideline [CG31. Published November 29, 2005. Accessed October 11, 2020. https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/cg31 31869034
  2. [29]Neumann PJ, Sanders GD, Russell LB, Siegel JE, Ganiats TG. Cost-Effectiveness in Health and Medicine. 2nd ed. Oxford University Press; 2017.

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
Aspvall, K., Sampaio, F., Lenhard, F., Melin, K., Norlin, L., Serlachius, E., Mataix-Cols, D., & Andersson, E.
Affiliations
  • Region Stockholm (SE)
  • Uppsala University (SE)
  • Karolinska Institutet (SE)
  • Sahlgrenska University Hospital (SE)
  • Centre for Psychiatry Research, Department of Clinical Neuroscience, Karolinska Institutet, Sweden
Corresponding author
Andersson, Erik
Venue
JAMA Network Open
Published
2021-07-30
Volume
4
Issue
7
Pages
e2118516
ISSN
2574-3805 (ISSN-L)
OpenAlex
W3183430452
Cited by
39
References
42
Citations by year
2026: 5 · 2025: 11 · 2024: 9 · 2023: 8 · 2022: 5 · 2021: 1
FWCI
5.16
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
cc-by
Locations
  • JAMA Network Open (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • KTH Publication Database DiVA (KTH Royal Institute of Technology) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
Funders
  • Forskningsrådet om Hälsa, Arbetsliv och Välfärd
  • Jane och Dan Olssons Stiftelse
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Applied Psychology › Digital Mental Health Interventions
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Obsessive-Compulsive Spectrum Disorders
  • Social Sciences › Economics, Econometrics and Finance › Economics and Econometrics › Health Systems, Economic Evaluations, Quality of Life
Keywords
obsessive-compulsive disorder, children and adolescents, internet-based cognitive behavioral therapy, stepped care, cost-effectiveness, quality-adjusted life years, treatment response, remission
MeSH terms
Equivalence Trials as Topic, Internet-Based Intervention, Adolescent, Child, Cost-Benefit Analysis, Female, Humans, Male, Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, Patient Acceptance of Health Care, Remission Induction, Sweden, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Odds Ratio, Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic, Treatment Outcome, Health Care Costs, Quality-Adjusted Life Years

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review