Evidence map›Paper›PMID 27230863›Full record

Trial reportPsychotherapy and psychosomatics

Effects of a Psychological Internet Intervention in the Treatment of Mild to Moderate Depressive Symptoms: Results of the EVIDENT Study, a Randomized Controlled Trial.

Jan Philipp Klein, Thomas Berger, Johanna Schröder, Christina Späth, Björn Meyer, Franz Caspar, Wolfgang Lutz, Alice Arndt, Wolfgang Greiner, Viola Gräfe and 9 more

Registry-linked trialAbstract readMulticenter StudyRandomized Controlled Trial
PubMed Full text at PMC Publisher
In one paragraph

Trial report in Psychotherapy and psychosomatics. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to trial NCT01636752 (Effectiveness of Internet-based Depression Treatment), which is not on this map. Cited by 73 papers, 12 of them syntheses that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
73citing papers in PubMed, 12 pooled it
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

NCT01636752 nacompletednot on this map

Effectiveness of Internet-based Depression Treatment

TypeinterventionalSponsorUniversity of LuebeckRan2012 to 2017Enrolled1,013ConditionsMild to Moderate Depressive SymptomsArmsDeprexis
3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

73 citing papers in PubMed, 12 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.

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  3. Effectiveness of unguided web-based interventions for the treatment of depressive symptoms in improving the quality of life: a meta-analysis.Quality of life research : an international journal of quality of life aspects of treatment, care and rehabilitation · 2025
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13 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

19 authors.

Jan Philipp KleinDepartment of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg, Germany.
Thomas Berger
Johanna Schröder
Christina Späth
Björn Meyer
Franz Caspar
Wolfgang Lutz
Alice Arndt
Wolfgang Greiner
Viola Gräfe
Martin Hautzinger
Kristina Fuhr
Matthias Rose
Sandra Nolte
Bernd Löwe
Gerhard Anderssoni
Eik Vettorazzi
Steffen Moritz
Fritz Hohagen

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

backgroundMild to moderate depressive symptoms are common but often remain unrecognized and treated inadequately. We hypothesized that an Internet intervention in addition to usual care is superior to care as usual alone (CAU) in the treatment of mild to moderate depressive symptoms in adults.

methodsThis trial was controlled, randomized and assessor-blinded. Participants with mild to moderate depressive symptoms (Patient Health Questionnaire, PHQ-9, score 5-14) were recruited from clinical and non-clinical settings and randomized to either CAU or a 12-week Internet intervention (Deprexis) adjunctive to usual care. Outcomes were assessed at baseline, 3 months (post-assessment) and 6 months (follow-up). The primary outcome measure was self-rated depression severity (PHQ-9). The main analysis was based on the intention-to-treat principle and used linear mixed models.

resultsA total of 1,013 participants were randomized. Changes in PHQ-9 from baseline differed signixFB01;cantly between groups (t825 = 6.12, p < 0.001 for the main effect of group). The post-assessment between-group effect size in favour of the intervention was d = 0.39 (95% CI: 0.13-0.64). It was stable at follow-up, with d = 0.32 (95% CI: 0.06-0.69). The rate of participants experiencing at least minimally clinically important PHQ-9 change at the post-assessment was higher in the intervention group (35.6 vs. 20.2%) with a number needed to treat of 7 (95% CI: 5-10).

conclusionsThe Internet intervention examined in this trial was superior to CAU alone in reducing mild to moderate depressive symptoms. The magnitude of the effect is clinically important and has public health implications.

Indexed as

AdolescentAdultAgedCognitive Behavioral TherapyDepressionFemaleGermanyHumansInternetLogistic ModelsMaleMiddle AgedPsychiatric Status Rating ScalesSeverity of Illness IndexSingle-Blind MethodYoung Adult

Identifiers

PMID27230863
PMCPMC8117387

What OpenQuestion holds

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Registered trials

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.