ArticleJMIR mental health2021
A Web-Based Group Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Intervention for Symptoms of Anxiety and Depression Among University Students: Open-Label, Pragmatic Trial.
Article in JMIR mental health, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to trial NCT05016154 (A Randomised Controlled Trial of Online Group CBT for Symptoms of Depression and Anxiety Among University Students in South Africa), which is not on this map. Cited by 24 papers, 4 of them syntheses that pooled 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.
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.
A Randomised Controlled Trial of Online Group CBT for Symptoms of Depression and Anxiety Among University Students in South Africa
Who cites it
24 citing papers in PubMed, 4 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 76 citations in OpenAlex.
- Effectiveness of Telehealth Care Interventions for Women's Mental Health During and After the COVID-19 Pandemic: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.Journal of medical Internet research · 2026Pooled it
- Public health interventions to improve the mental health and mental health literacy of young people in resource-limited settings: a systematic review.Frontiers in public health · 2026Pooled it
- Digital Psychotherapies for Adults Experiencing Depressive Symptoms: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.JMIR mental health · 2024Pooled it
- The Usability, Feasibility, Acceptability, and Efficacy of Digital Mental Health Services in the COVID-19 Pandemic: Scoping Review, Systematic Review, and Meta-analysis.JMIR public health and surveillance · 2023Pooled it
- The role of idioms in reducing depression in university students: a study on group cognitive behavioral therapy.BMC psychology · 2025Trial
- Prediction of the efficacy of group cognitive behavioral therapy using heart rate variability based smart wearable devices: a randomized controlled study.BMC psychiatry · 2024Trial
- A Mobile Application Adjunct to Augment Cognitive-Behavioral Group Therapy for Adolescents with Social Anxiety: Feasibility and Acceptability Results from the Wiring Adolescents with Social Anxiety via Behavioral Interventions Pilot Trial.Journal of child and adolescent psychopharmacology · 2023Trial
- Improving the emotional wellbeing of university students through culturally adapted cognitive and dialectical behavioral group interventions: protocol for two parallel feasibility and effectiveness studies.Translational behavioral medicine · 2026Article
- Mental health patterns and associated social determinants among university and college students in sub-Saharan Africa during the COVID-19 pandemic era: a scoping review.Frontiers in public health · 2026Article
- UNIPDES - An internet-based transdiagnostic intervention for college students' psychological symptoms: Evaluation of its development, usability and effectiveness: Study protocol.Contemporary clinical trials communications · 2025Article
- The contribution of childhood adversities to the persistence of severe role impairment among college students: a follow-up study.Social psychiatry and psychiatric epidemiology · 2025Article
- VR sculpting as a therapeutic intervention for alleviating anxiety: a case study from a university art class.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2025Article
- Addressing loneliness in emerging adults in primary care: a pilot feasibility study.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2025Article
- Effects of online cognitive behavioral therapy on depression, negative automatic thoughts, and quality of life in Thai university students during the COVID-19 lockdown in 2021: a quasi-experimental study.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2025Article
- Design and Implementation of Survey Quality Control System for Qatar's First National Mental Health Survey: Case Study.JMIR formative research · 2023Article
- Article
- Feasibility, Perceived Impact, and Acceptability of a Socially Assistive Robot to Support Emotion Regulation With Highly Anxious University Students: Mixed Methods Open Trial.JMIR mental health · 2023Article
- Article
- South African university students' experiences of online group cognitive behavioural therapy: Implications for delivering digital mental health interventions to young people.Global mental health (Cambridge, England) · 2023Article
- University students' use of mental health services: a systematic review and meta-analysis.International journal of mental health systems · 2022Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
8 authors at 5 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundAnxiety and depression are common among university students, and university counseling centers are under pressure to develop effective, novel, and sustainable interventions that engage and retain students. Group interventions delivered via the internet could be a novel and effective way to promote student mental health.
objectiveWe conducted a pragmatic open trial to investigate the uptake, retention, treatment response, and level of satisfaction with a remote group cognitive behavioral therapy intervention designed to reduce symptoms of anxiety and depression delivered on the web to university students during the COVID-19 pandemic.
methodsPreintervention and postintervention self-reported data on anxiety and depression were collected using the Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7 and Patient Health Questionnaire-9. Satisfaction was assessed postintervention using the Client Satisfaction with Treatment Questionnaire.
resultsA total of 175 students were enrolled, 158 (90.3%) of whom initiated treatment. Among those initiating treatment, 86.1% (135/158) identified as female, and the mean age was 22.4 (SD 4.9) years. The mean number of sessions attended was 6.4 (SD 2.8) out of 10. Among participants with clinically significant symptoms at baseline, mean symptom scores decreased significantly for anxiety (t
conclusionsThe results of this study serve as a proof of concept for the use of web-based group cognitive behavioral therapy to promote the mental health of university students.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
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.