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Cited by 33Digital Mental Health InterventionsTelemedicine and Telehealth ImplementationMental Health Treatment and Access

Feasibility of a UK community-based, eTherapy mental health service in Greater Manchester: repeated-measures and between-groups study of ‘Living Life to the Full Interactive’, ‘Sleepio’ and ‘Breaking Free Online’ at ‘Self Help Services’

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Elison, Sarah, Ward, Jonathan, Williams, Chris, Espie, Colin, Davies, Glyn, Dugdale, Stephanie, Ragan, Kathryn, Chisnall, Leanne +2 more·2017·BMJ Open
DOI 10.1136/bmjopen-2017-016392PMC PMC5541623
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Abstract

Objectives: There is increasing evidence to support the effectiveness of eTherapies for mental health, although limited data have been reported from community-based services. Therefore, this service evaluation reports on feasibility and outcomes from an eTherapy mental health service. Setting: ‘Self Help Services’, an Increasing Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) eTherapy service in Greater Manchester. Participants: 1068 service users referred to the service for secondary care for their mental health difficulties. Interventions: Participants were triaged into one of three eTherapy programmes: ‘Living Life to the Full Interactive’ for low mood, stress and anxiety; ‘Sleepio’ for insomnia; and ‘Breaking Free Online’ for substance misuse, depending on clinical need. Primary outcomes measures: Standardised psychometric assessments of depression, anxiety and social functioning, collected as part of the IAPT Minimum Data Set, were conducted at baseline and post-treatment. Results: Data indicated baseline differences, with the Breaking Free Online group having higher scores for depression and anxiety than the Living Life to the Full Interactive (depression CI 1.27 to 3.21, p<0.0001; anxiety CI 077 to 1.72, p<0.0001) and Sleepio (depression CI 1.19 to 4.52, p<0.0001; anxiety CI 2.16 to 5.23, p<0.0001) groups. Promising improvements in mental health scores were found within all three groups (all p<0.0001), as were significant reductions in numbers of service users reaching clinical threshold scores for mental health difficulties (p<0.0001). Number of days of engagement was not related to change from baseline for the Living Life to the Full or Sleepio programmes but was associated with degree of change for Breaking Free Online. Conclusion: Data presented provide evidence for feasibility of this eTherapy delivery model in supporting service users with a range of mental health difficulties and suggest that eTherapies may be a useful addition to treatment offering in community-based services.

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  • Sleepio has been well verified for its effectiveness in relieving insomnia and improving quality of life and depression related to insomnia based on numerous clinical studies.

    “For example, ‘Sleepio,’ which is a cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT)-based therapy for insomnia by Big Health, has been well verified for its effectiveness in relieving insomnia and improving quality of life and depression related to insomnia based on numerous clinical studies over the past few years [8,9].”

    From A Review of Current Digital Mental Health Care Applications for Anxiety Symptoms and Future Prospects (2024) · cites this paper as [8]

    The Introduction (page unavailable) describes Sleepio as a CBT-informed programme demonstrated effective for insomnia and cites several prior studies. The Results (page unavailable) report reduced depression thresholds among Sleepio users. However, this paper does not establish an improvement in quality of life; its Limitations section says insomnia severity data were unavailable for its own Sleepio group. (LLM, conf=0.86)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured

  • A large-scale (n=1,711) randomized trial of Sleepio conducted in 2015 confirmed that it improved both daytime and nighttime aspects of insomnia.

    “Its large-scale (n=1,711) randomized trial conducted in 2015 confirmed that it improved both daytime and nighttime aspects of insomnia.”

    From A Review of Current Digital Mental Health Care Applications for Anxiety Symptoms and Future Prospects (2024) · cites this paper as [8]

    The Introduction (page unavailable) describes Sleepio as effective for insomnia, which supports the general improvement claim. But this paper reports a community-service study of 1,068 users, not a 2015 randomized trial of 1,711 people. Its Limitations section says insomnia severity was not measured for the Sleepio group, so it cannot substantiate the claimed daytime and nighttime outcomes. (LLM, conf=0.88)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured

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Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
Elison, S., Ward, J., Williams, C., Espie, C., Davies, G., Dugdale, S., Ragan, K., Chisnall, L., Lidbetter, N., & Smith, K.
Affiliations
  • Breaking Free Group (United Kingdom) (GB)
  • University of Glasgow (GB)
  • University of Oxford (GB)
  • Self Help Services, UK
Corresponding author
Elison, Sarah
ORCID
Venue
BMJ Open
Publisher
BMJ
Published
2017-07
Volume
7
Issue
7
Pages
e016392
ISSN
2044-6055 (ISSN-L)
DOI
10.1136/bmjopen-2017-016392
PMC
PMC5541623
OpenAlex
W2737654419
Cited by
33
References
26
Citations by year
2026: 1 · 2024: 3 · 2023: 3 · 2022: 5 · 2021: 7 · 2020: 6 · 2019: 4 · 2018: 3 · 2017: 1
FWCI
4.37
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
cc-by-nc
Locations
  • BMJ Open (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • ENLIGHTEN (Jurnal Bimbingan dan Konseling Islam) (acceptedVersion)
  • HighWire Press Open Archive (submittedVersion)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Applied Psychology › Digital Mental Health Interventions
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Telemedicine and Telehealth Implementation
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Mental Health Treatment and Access
Keywords
digital mental health interventions, community mental health services, depression, anxiety, insomnia, substance abuse, user engagement, feasibility, Greater Manchester
MeSH terms
Adult, Mental Disorders, Community Mental Health Services, Female, United Kingdom, Humans, Male, Mental Health, Middle Aged, Regression Analysis, Treatment Outcome, Internet

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