The DOI matches its Crossref record; 28 of the 28 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
Manage Your Life Online: A Web-Based Randomized Controlled Trial Evaluating the Effectiveness of a Problem-Solving Intervention in a Student Sample
Open accessAbstract
Background: Evidence for the efficacy of computer-based psychological interventions is growing. A number of such interventions have been found to be effective, especially for mild to moderate cases. They largely rely on psychoeducation and ‘homework tasks’, and are specific to certain diagnoses (e.g. depression). Aims: This paper presents the results of a web-based randomized controlled trial of Manage Your Life Online (MYLO), a program that uses artificial intelligence to engage the participant in a conversation across any problem topic. Method: Healthy volunteers ( n = 213) completed a baseline questionnaire and were randomized to the MYLO program or to an active control condition where they used the program ELIZA, which emulates a Rogerian psychotherapist. Participants completed a single session before completing post-study and 2-week follow-up measures. Results: Analyses were per protocol with intent to follow-up. Both programs were associated with improvements in problem distress, anxiety and depression post-intervention, and again 2 weeks later, but MYLO was not found to be more effective than ELIZA. MYLO was rated as significantly more helpful than ELIZA, but there was no main effect of intervention on problem resolution. Conclusions: Findings are consistent with those of a previous smaller, laboratory-based trial and provide support for the acceptability and effectiveness of MYLO delivered over the internet for a non-clinical sample. The lack of a no-treatment control condition means that the effect of spontaneous recovery cannot be ruled out.
Overview
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.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Verification
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.
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?
In the citing paper
“Only 3 studies included a follow-up period [23,24,27].”
From Conversational agents in the treatment of mental health problems: mixed-method systematic review (2019) · cites this paper as [24]
In the citing paper
“Furthermore, 4 controlled studies reported no significant posttreatment differences on measures of psychological distress between the intervention and control groups [24,27,32,33] with both intervention and control conditions demonstrating reduced distress [24,27,33] or increased uptake of stress management techniques [32].”
From Conversational agents in the treatment of mental health problems: mixed-method systematic review (2019) · cites this paper as [24]
In the citing paper
“Furthermore, 4 controlled studies reported no significant posttreatment differences on measures of psychological distress between the intervention and control groups [24,27,32,33] with both intervention and control conditions demonstrating reduced distress [24,27,33] or increased uptake of stress management techniques [32].”
From Conversational agents in the treatment of mental health problems: mixed-method systematic review (2019) · cites this paper as [24]
In the citing paper
“In addition, 2 pilot trials with active control groups found significantly higher ratings of problem resolution in the intervention group compared with the control group [24,27].”
From Conversational agents in the treatment of mental health problems: mixed-method systematic review (2019) · cites this paper as [24]
In the citing paper
“The use of conversational agents for treating mental health problems appears to be limited but is growing quickly, with 5 of the included studies published in 2018 alone [23,24,26,29,34].”
From Conversational agents in the treatment of mental health problems: mixed-method systematic review (2019) · cites this paper as [24]
In the citing paper
“Controlled studies with active control conditions (eg, another conversational agent or human psychological therapy) failed to demonstrate superior effects [24,27,28].”
From Conversational agents in the treatment of mental health problems: mixed-method systematic review (2019) · cites this paper as [24]
In the citing paper
“Furthermore, 2 studies reported that participants indicated that they would recommend the conversational agent intervention to other people [18,24] (the proactive version).”
From Conversational agents in the treatment of mental health problems: mixed-method systematic review (2019) · cites this paper as [24]
In the citing paper
“Users of AI systems reported greater satisfaction, learning skills, and therapeutic alliance than users with non-AI-based programs, such as eBooks, bibliotherapy, or text-based programs [78,80,86].”
From Using Artificial Intelligence to Enhance Ongoing Psychological Interventions for Emotional Problems in Real- or Close to Real-Time: A Systematic Review (2022) · cites this paper as [80]
In the citing paper
“One of the remaining three studies [80] was rated as “fair” with an 8 out of 14, as the condition to which each participant was allocated was not masked for the providers, drop-out rates at endpoints were relatively high, and the authors did not use valid assessment procedures.”
From Using Artificial Intelligence to Enhance Ongoing Psychological Interventions for Emotional Problems in Real- or Close to Real-Time: A Systematic Review (2022) · cites this paper as [80]
In the citing paper
“One of the remaining three studies [80] was rated as “fair” with an 8 out of 14, as the condition to which each participant was allocated was not masked for the providers, drop-out rates at endpoints were relatively high, and the authors did not use valid assessment procedures.”
From Using Artificial Intelligence to Enhance Ongoing Psychological Interventions for Emotional Problems in Real- or Close to Real-Time: A Systematic Review (2022) · cites this paper as [80]
In the citing paper
“One of the remaining three studies [80] was rated as “fair” with an 8 out of 14, as the condition to which each participant was allocated was not masked for the providers, drop-out rates at endpoints were relatively high, and the authors did not use valid assessment procedures.”
From Using Artificial Intelligence to Enhance Ongoing Psychological Interventions for Emotional Problems in Real- or Close to Real-Time: A Systematic Review (2022) · cites this paper as [80]
In the citing paper
“One of the remaining three studies [80] was rated as “fair” with an 8 out of 14, as the condition to which each participant was allocated was not masked for the providers, drop-out rates at endpoints were relatively high, and the authors did not use valid assessment procedures.”
From Using Artificial Intelligence to Enhance Ongoing Psychological Interventions for Emotional Problems in Real- or Close to Real-Time: A Systematic Review (2022) · cites this paper as [80]
Self-check
Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.
The self-check needs the paper’s full text.
Citations
Cites
Lovibond, P. F., & Lovibond, S. H. (1995) · Behaviour Research and Therapy · doi:10.1016/0005-7967(94)00075-u · Cited by 14,523
The necessary and sufficient conditions of therapeutic personality change.
Rogers, C. R. (1957) · Journal of Consulting Psychology · doi:10.1037/h0045357 · Cited by 5,599
ELIZA—a computer program for the study of natural language communication between man and machine
Weizenbaum, J. (1966) · Communications of the ACM · doi:10.1145/365153.365168 · Cited by 4,452
Internet-based cognitive behaviour therapy for symptoms of depression and anxiety: A meta-analysis
SPEK, V., CUIJPERS, P., NYKLÍČEK, I., RIPER, H., KEYZER, J., & POP, V. (2007) · Psychological Medicine · doi:10.1017/s0033291706008944 · Cited by 1,586
Marshall, M., Lockwood, A., Bradley, C., Adams, C., Joy, C., & Fenton, M. (2000) · British Journal of Psychiatry · doi:10.1192/bjp.176.3.249 · Cited by 870 · cited 2×
“There is also evidence that using unpublished scales can lead to positive findings that would not have been obtained using validated instruments (Marshall et al., 2000).”
BackgroundHedman, E., Ljótsson, B., & Lindefors, N. (2012) · Expert Review of Pharmacoeconomics & Outcomes Research · doi:10.1586/erp.12.67 · Cited by 672
Proudfoot, J., Ryden, C., Everitt, B., Shapiro, D. A., Goldberg, D., Mann, A., Tylee, A., Marks, I., & Gray, J. A. (2004) · British Journal of Psychiatry · doi:10.1192/bjp.185.1.46 · Cited by 516 · cited 1×
“There is now good evidence that computerized versions of interventions are effective, especially for mild to moderate cases (Andrews and Titov, 2009; Proudfoot et al., 2004).”
BackgroundInternet-based psychological treatments for depression
Johansson, R., & Andersson, G. (2012) · Expert Review of Neurotherapeutics · doi:10.1586/ern.12.63 · Cited by 509
Standardising outcomes for clinical trials and systematic reviews
Clarke, M. (2007) · Trials · doi:10.1186/1745-6215-8-39 · Cited by 483
Imputation of missing longitudinal data: a comparison of methods
Engels, J. (2003) · Journal of Clinical Epidemiology · doi:10.1016/s0895-4356(03)00170-7 · Cited by 478
Research works printed but not linked: 2
- Shaw, 1999, FearFighter: lessons from pilot tests of computer self help for agora/claustrophobia and panic, MD Computing, 16, 44
- Powers, 1973, Behaviour: The Control of Perception
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Items 101–109 of 109
Six, S., Schlesener, E. A., Hill, V., Babu, S. V., & Byrne, K. A. (2024) · doi:10.2196/preprints.67330
Goldie, J.-M. D., Dennis, S. J., Hipgrave, L., & Coleman, A. (2025) · doi:10.2196/preprints.71065
Ulrich, S., Lienhard, N., Künzli, H., & Kowatsch, T. (2024) · Zürcher Hochschule für Angewandte Wissenschaften digital collection (Zurich University of Applied Sciences) · doi:10.21256/zhaw-30977
Schwientek, A.-K., Drüge, M., Terhorst, Y., Kabrel, M., Sahan, F., & Apolinário-Hagen, J. (2026) · Advances in experimental medicine and biology · doi:10.1007/978-981-95-6872-7_29
Artificial Intelligence in Mental Health Monitoring
Pabbi, V., Sandhu, M. K., & Angurala, M. (2026) · International Conference on Computing for Sustainable Global Development · doi:10.23919/indiacom70271.2026.11525482
Weiss, M. D., Aldis, R., Bien-Aimé, D. D. R., Witkowski, T., Williams, P., Holmes, K. E., Cortés, D. E., Wang, P. S., Cook, B. L., & Castine, E. (2026) · Brain Sciences · doi:10.3390/brainsci16080853
Wang, Q., Zhong, J., Qi, K., Bao, H., Wang, Y., Guo, S., & Chen, A. (2026) · Psychiatry Research · doi:10.1016/j.psychres.2026.117459
Shao, C., Chen, X., Qiao, S., Li, A., Liu, S., & Chen, Y. (2026) · Frontiers in Psychiatry · doi:10.3389/fpsyt.2026.1824378
Coulombe, S., Rickard, N. S., Pacheco, T., Francis, J., Vella-Brodrick, D., Dionne, É., Shestopaloff, A., Vokey, F., Hoang, N. B. L., Leitch, J., et al. (2026) · doi:10.2196/preprints.114548
Metadata
- Authors
- Bird, T., Mansell, W., Wright, J., Gaffney, H., & Tai, S.
- Affiliations
- University of Manchester (GB)
- Corresponding author
- Bird, Timothy
- Venue
- Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapy
- Publisher
- Cambridge University Press (CUP)
- Published
- 2018-01-25
- Volume
- 46
- Issue
- 5
- Pages
- 570-582
- ISSN
- 1352-4658 (ISSN-L)
- 1469-1833
- OpenAlex
- W2792708398
- Cited by
- 109
- References
- 28
- Citations by year
- 2026: 7 · 2025: 10 · 2024: 9 · 2023: 12 · 2022: 10 · 2021: 5 · 2020: 51 · 2019: 5
- FWCI
- 19.23
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- Licence
- Locations
- Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapy (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Research Explorer (The University of Manchester) (publishedVersion, other-oa)
- Edinburgh Research Explorer (University of Edinburgh) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Applied Psychology › Digital Mental Health Interventions
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Anxiety, Depression, Psychometrics, Treatment, Cognitive Processes
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Psychotherapy Techniques and Applications
- Keywords
- computerized cognitive behavioral therapy, problem-solving intervention, AI chatbots, Eliza, anxiety, depression, acceptability, spontaneous recovery
- MeSH terms
- Adolescent, Adult, Aged, Anxiety, Depression, Female, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Problem Solving, Psychotherapy, Surveys and Questionnaires, Students, Treatment Outcome, Internet, Young Adult, Self Report
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
