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Rapid Review and Meta-Meta-Analysis of Self-Guided Interventions to Address Anxiety, Depression, and Stress During COVID-19 Social Distancing
Open accessAbstract
We conducted a rapid review and quantitative summary of meta-analyses that have examined interventions which can be used by individuals during quarantine and social distancing to manage anxiety, depression, stress and subjective well-being. A literature search yielded 34 meta-analyses (total number of studies k = 1,390, n = 145,744) that were summarized. Overall, self-guided interventions showed small to medium effects in comparison to control groups. In particular, self-guided therapeutic approaches (including cognitive-behavioral, mindfulness, and acceptance-based interventions), selected positive psychology interventions, and multi-component and activity-based interventions (music, physical exercise) showed promising evidence for effectiveness. Overall, self-guided interventions on average did not show the same degree of effectiveness as traditional guided individual or group therapies. There was no consistent evidence of dose effects, baseline differences and differential effectiveness of eHealth interventions. More research on the effectiveness of interventions in diverse cultural settings is needed.
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“Self-guided interventions have been found to have promising evidence too.14”
From Psychological treatments for the mental health symptoms among individuals infected with COVID-19: a scoping review protocol (2023) · cites this paper as [14]
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“Stand-alone apps offer accessibility in times when face-to-face delivery is not an option, such as during pandemic-related lockdowns [65], and can deliver brief training components at convenient times for those with busy schedules [64,66].”
From Evaluation of an App-Delivered Psychological Flexibility Skill Training Intervention for Medical Student Burnout and Well-being: Randomized Controlled Trial (2023) · cites this paper as [65]
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“Indeed, a recent review shows that self-guided interventions may not be as effective as those in which there is an active relationship between the participants and the instructor (Fischer et al., 2020).”
From Feasibility of a Brief Online Mindfulness and Compassion-Based Intervention to Promote Mental Health Among University Students During the COVID-19 Pandemic (2021) · cites this paper as Fischer et al., 2020
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Metadata
- Authors
- Fischer, R., Bortolini, T., Karl, J. A., Zilberberg, M., Robinson, K., Rabelo, A., Gemal, L., Wegerhoff, D., Nguyễn, T. B. T., Irving, B., Chrystal, M., & Mattos, P.
- Affiliations
- Victoria University of Wellington (NZ)
- D’Or Institute for Research and Education (BR)
- Universidade de Brasília (BR)
- Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (BR)
- Corresponding author
- Fischer, Ronald
- ORCID
- Venue
- Frontiers in Psychology
- Publisher
- Frontiers Media SA
- Published
- 2020-10-28
- Volume
- 11
- Pages
- 563876-563876
- ISSN
- 1664-1078 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC7655981
- OpenAlex
- W3097293400
- Cited by
- 153
- References
- 55
- Citations by year
- 2026: 3 · 2025: 14 · 2024: 15 · 2023: 35 · 2022: 42 · 2021: 36 · 2020: 8
- FWCI
- 4.75
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Frontiers in Psychology (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- LA Referencia (Red Federada de Repositorios Institucionales de Publicaciones Científicas) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- OSF Preprints (OSF Preprints) (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Applied Psychology › Digital Mental Health Interventions
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › COVID-19 and Mental Health
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Mindfulness and Compassion Interventions
- Keywords
- self-guided intervention, COVID-19 pandemic, social distancing, quarantine, anxiety, depression, stress, subjective well-being, cognitive-behavioral intervention, mindfulness, acceptance-based interventions, positive psychology interventions, digital health interventions, music intervention, physical activity, dosage effect, cultural diversity
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