CoChat
Sign Up
Cited by 352Digital Mental Health InterventionsTelemedicine and Telehealth ImplementationHealth Literacy and Information Accessibility

Internet interventions: In review, in use, and into the future.

Ritterband, Lee M., Gonder-Frederick, Linda A., Cox, Daniel J., Clifton, Allan D., West, Rebecca W., Borowitz, Stephen M.·2003·Professional Psychology: Research and Practice
DOI 10.1037/0735-7028.34.5.527
Open this paper in CoChat — free account

Abstract

The provision of health care over the Internet is a rapidly evolving and potentially beneficial means of delivering treatment otherwise unsought or unobtainable. Internet interventions are typically behavioral treatments operationalized and transformed for Web delivery with the goal of symptom improvement. The literature on the feasibility and utility of Internet interventions is limited, and there are even fewer outcome study findings. This article reviews empirically tested Internet interventions and provides an overview of the issues in developing and/or using them in clinical practice. Future directions and implications are also addressed. Although Internet interventions will not likely replace face-to-face care, there is little doubt that they will grow in importance as a powerful component of successful psychobehavioral treatment. With the advancement of computer technologies over the past 20 years, a flood of new ways to communicate, provide, and deliver psychological treatments has emerged. The Internet has the ability to reach people all over the world and provide highly specialized psychological interventions otherwise not sought or obtainable. There is a new but growing literature on the use of the Internet as a means of delivering treatment. These Internet treatments are typically focused on behavioral issues, with the goal of instituting behavior change and subsequent symptom improvement. They are usually self-paced, interactive, and tailored to the user, and they make use of the multimedia format offered by the Internet. Individuals with computer and Internet access who use these treatments may also overcome many of the barriers to obtaining traditional care because they can seek such treatments at any time, any place, and often at significantly reduced cost. Clearly, people are using computers and the Internet in greater frequency and with the specific purpose of obtaining mental health information (see Crutsinger, 2000; Employment Policy Foundation, 2001; Pew Research Center, 2002; Rabasca, 2000). This new field of Internet interventions is only going to grow and expand. The benefits are vast, as there is the potential for greater numbers of people to receive more services than ever before. However, to meet this potential, Internet interventions, like any other treatment, must first demonstrate feasibility and efficacy through rigorous scientific testing. In this article we present a critical examination of the current state of the available literature focused on the development and testing of these types of interventions. In addition, issues that should be addressed when constructing Internet interventions are enumerated, followed by a discussion of possible future directions and implications for research and clinical practice.

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1037/0735-7028.34.5.527

Cites

35 of 35 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Recomputing p-values needs the paper’s full text.

Claims the paper makes

This paper’s full text isn’t openly available, so its claims and self-check weren’t run. The registry and citation checks still apply.

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?

  • ICBT interventions most often provide comparable therapeutic content to that which is delivered in regular face-to-face CBT, modified for the online delivery and usually presented in modules on a weekly basis.

    “ICBT interventions most often provide comparable therapeutic content to that which is delivered in regular face-to-face CBT, modified for the online delivery and usually presented in modules on a weekly basis (Andersson and Titov, 2014; Barak et al., 2009; Ritterband et al., 2003).”

    From Internet-based cognitive behavioral therapy for adolescents with anxiety disorders: A feasibility study (2018) · cites this paper as Ritterband et al., 2003

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Related

Authors
Ritterband, L. M., Gonder-Frederick, L. A., Cox, D. J., Clifton, A. D., West, R. W., & Borowitz, S. M.
Affiliations
University of Virginia Health System (US)
ORCID
Venue
Professional Psychology: Research and Practice
Publisher
American Psychological Association (APA)
Published
2003-10
Volume
34
Issue
5
Pages
527-534
ISSN
  • 0735-7028 (ISSN-L)
  • 1939-1323
DOI
10.1037/0735-7028.34.5.527
OpenAlex
W2168968718
Cited by
352
References
33
Citations by year
2025: 8 · 2024: 6 · 2023: 5 · 2022: 4 · 2021: 8 · 2020: 16 · 2019: 16 · 2018: 19 · 2017: 19 · 2016: 28 · 2015: 16 · 2014: 26 · 2013: 24 · 2012: 32
FWCI
16.39
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
closed
Locations
Professional Psychology Research and Practice (publishedVersion)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Applied Psychology › Digital Mental Health Interventions
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Telemedicine and Telehealth Implementation
  • Health Sciences › Health Professions › General Health Professions › Health Literacy and Information Accessibility
Keywords
online intervention, behavior therapy, treatment feasibility, treatment efficacy, barriers to mental health care, behavior change, telemedicine

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