Björn Meyer

• Ph.D.
• Research Director at GAIA AG

BACKGROUND Fatigue is common in multiple sclerosis (MS); it significantly impairs quality of life, and treatment options are limited. A randomized controlled trial of Elevida, a self-guided, online German fatigue intervention, showed significant benefit. We tested an English version of Elevida with people with MS in Australia. METHODS Participants...

Background Multiple Sclerosis (MS) is a chronic inflammatory neurodegenerative disease with diverse symptomatology, significantly impacting patients’ quality of life (QoL). While pharmacological therapies focus primarily on reducing inflammation and relapse rates, non-pharmacological interventions, including digital health applications, have shown...

Objective A recent randomized-controlled (phase III) clinical trial examined the efficacy of an internet-delivered cognitive behavioral therapy (iCBT) intervention designed to treat depressive symptoms in persons with multiple sclerosis (PwMS). Significant mean reductions in depressive symptoms were found in the stand-alone iCBT and guided-iCBT con...

Objective Despite the availability of pharmacological treatment for seizures, people with epilepsy (PwE) commonly experience impairments in quality of life (QoL). Given the limited access to psychosocial treatments for PwE, digital interventions could bridge treatment gaps and help improve QoL. The objective of this study was to examine the effecti...

Web-based interventions can be effective in treating depressive symptoms. Patients with risk not responding to treatment have been identified by early change patterns. This study aims to examine whether early changes are superior to baseline parameters in predicting long-term outcome. In a randomized clinical trial with 409 individuals experiencing...

Background Persons with multiple sclerosis (pwMS) might be particularly well suited to benefit from digital health applications because they are, on average, younger and less severely disabled than patients with many other chronic diseases. Many digital health applications for pwMS have been developed. Objectives Analysis of the evidence of digita...

Background Many persons with multiple sclerosis (pwMS) desire to learn how health behaviour changes (e.g., dietary adjustments, physical activity, improvements in stress management) might help them manage their disease. Previous research has shown that certain health behaviour changes can improve quality of life (QoL), fatigue and other MS outcomes...

Background Depression is three to four times more prevalent in patients with neurological and inflammatory disorders than in the general population. For example, in patients with multiple sclerosis, the 12-month prevalence of major depressive disorder is around 25% and it is associated with a lower quality of life, faster disease progression, and h...

BACKGROUND Depression is undertreated in Brazil. Deprexis is an internet-based program to treat depressive symptoms based on empirically supported integrative and cognitive-behavioral therapy. Evidence from metanalysis supports Deprexis’ efficacy in German-speaking countries and the United States of America, but no study has yet been conducted usin...

Background Depression is undertreated in Brazil. Deprexis is a self-guided internet-based program used to treat depressive symptoms based on empirically supported integrative and cognitive behavioral therapy. Evidence from a meta-analysis supports Deprexis’ efficacy in German-speaking countries and the United States, but no study has been conducted...

Introduction Despite the lack of high-quality evidence regarding its long-term effectiveness, intravenous corticosteroid therapy is recommended as the standard treatment of acute multiple sclerosis relapses in Germany. High financial expenses and the equivalent effectiveness of oral corticosteroid therapy contrast with this trend. There is an urgen...

Background A multiple sclerosis (MS) diagnosis urges decision-making on immunotherapies, while persons with MS (PwMS) need to develop a coping concept in parallel. At this stage, PwMS ask how they themselves may contribute to controlling the disease. Evidence suggests that maintaining a healthy lifestyle (e.g. physical activity and stress managemen...

Introduction Electronic health (eHealth) interventions integrate different elements of care in treating and preventing mental ill-health in patients with somatic illnesses. Identifying different sociodemographic characteristics that might be associated with higher perceived usability can help in improving the usability of these e-health interventio...

Background: This study assessed the effectiveness of the NEVERMIND e-health system, consisting of a smart shirt and a mobile application with lifestyle behavioural advice, mindfulness-based therapy, and cognitive behavioural therapy, in reducing depressive symptoms among patients diagnosed with severe somatic conditions. Our hypothesis was that th...

BACKGROUND Electronic health (eHealth) interventions have become an interest to the field of mental health due to their increased coordination and integration of different elements of care in treating and preventing mental ill-health in patients with somatic illnesses. However, poor usability, learnability, and user engagement might affect the effe...

Background: eHealth interventions have become a topic of interest in the field of mental health owing to their increased coordination and integration of different elements of care, in treating and preventing mental ill health in patients with somatic illnesses. However, poor usability, learnability, and user engagement might affect the effectivene...

Background: Opioid use disorder (OUD) is characterized by the inability to control opioid use despite attempts to stop use and negative consequences to oneself and others. The burden of opioid misuse and OUD is a national crisis in the United States with substantial public health, social, and economic implications. Although medication-assisted tre...

BACKGROUND Opioid use disorder (OUD) is characterized by the inability to control opioid use despite attempts to stop use and negative consequences to oneself and others. The burden of opioid misuse and OUD is a national crisis in the United States with substantial public health, social, and economic implications. Although medication-assisted treat...

Introduction After the acute treatment phase, breast cancer patients often experience low quality of life and impaired mental health, which could potentially be improved by offering cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) and addressing exercise and dietary habits. However, CBT and other behavioural interventions are rarely available beyond the acute t...

Background Internet cognitive behavioural therapy (iCBT) is a viable delivery format of CBT for depression. However, iCBT programmes include training in a wide array of cognitive and behavioural skills via different delivery methods, and it remains unclear which of these components are more efficacious and for whom. Methods We did a systematic revi...

Background: Depression is a highly prevalent mental disorder, but only a fraction of those affected receive evidence-based treatments. Recently, Internet-based interventions were introduced as an efficacious and cost-effective approach. However, even though depression is a heterogenous construct, effects of treatments have mostly been determined us...

Objective To explore the moderating effects of sociodemographic variables on treatment benefits received from participating in an internet intervention for depression. Design Randomised, assessor-blind, controlled trial. Setting Online intervention, with participant recruitment using multiple settings, including inpatient and outpatient medical a...

Importance Personalized treatment choices would increase the effectiveness of internet-based cognitive behavioral therapy (iCBT) for depression to the extent that patients differ in interventions that better suit them. Objective To provide personalized estimates of short-term and long-term relative efficacy of guided and unguided iCBT for depressi...

Online treatment programmes extend the reach and effectiveness of psychological interventions for suicide prevention. Such programmes could teach individuals relevant self-management techniques, including emotion regulation or other techniques used in cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT). Advantages such as privacy, low-threshold accessibility, scalab...

Specific psychological treatments for depressive disorders delivered on the Internet have shown effectiveness and presented advantages over face-to-face treatments (potentially less expensive, flexible schedules, available in remote areas). This paper aims to describe the characteristics of those who sought help from an online self-guided intervent...

Objective: To examine immediate and long-term effectiveness of an adjunctive Internet intervention for depression in a large sample of patients undergoing routine psychotherapy. Method: The current study evaluated a subgroup of patients from the Evident trial, a randomized investigation of a 12-week minimally guided Internet intervention (Deprexis)...

This study tested the hypothesis that chronic depression (CD) is more similar to depression with multiple prior episodes (ME) than to depression with few prior episodes (FE). Data from participants (n = 1013) with mild to moderate depressive symptoms (Patient Health Questionnaire [PHQ-9] score 5 – 14) who took part in a randomized control trial of...

Background Therapeutic alliance has been well established as a robust predictor of face-to-face psychotherapy outcomes. Although initial evidence positioned alliance as a relevant predictor of internet intervention success, some conceptual and methodological concerns were raised regarding the methods and instruments used to measure the alliance in...

Although psychological treatments for depressive disorders are available, they are often expensive or inaccessible for many. Web-based interventions that require minimal or no contact with therapists have been shown effective. To the best of our knowledge, no study using this treatment format has been conducted in Brazil. The Deprexis program was d...

Background: Depressive symptoms are common in individuals suffering from severe somatic conditions. There is a lack of interventions and evidence-based interventions aiming to reduce depressive symptoms in patients with severe somatic conditions. The aim of the NEVERMIND project is to address these issues and provide evidence by testing the NEVERM...

Digitally delivered interventions for depression vary in many aspects, including their therapeutic orientation, depth of content, interactivity, individual tailoring, inclusion of multimedia, cost, and effectiveness. However, their effectiveness is rarely examined in intervention-specific meta-analyses. An earlier meta-analysis of eight randomized...

Introduction: Depression and fatigue are common in breast cancer survivors, and their presence is associated with personal suffering and worse prognosis. While many women receive short-term psychological support in the acute treatment phase, this is rarely available in subsequent phases. Internet interventions for breast cancer survivors could pro...

Intrusive depressive thoughts are typically deined in terms of their content, frequency, and pervasiveness. The extent to which they carry sensory properties is largely unexplored. In a pilot study, 56.5% of individuals with mild to moderate depressive symptoms experienced depressive thoughts with sensory features. The present study explored the pr...

Objective: Data from the EVIDENT trial were reanalyzed to examine whether specific anxiety-related comorbidities moderate the effect of an Internet intervention on depression outcome. Method: The EVIDENT study is a randomized controlled trial that included N = 1,013 participants with mild to moderate depressive symptoms (i.e., scores between 5 a...

BACKGROUND The therapeutic alliance has been well established as a robust predictor of face-to-face psychotherapy outcome. Although initial evidence also positioned alliance as a relevant predictor of Internet interventions’ success, some conceptual and methodological concerns were raised regarding the methods and instruments used to measure the al...

The internet-based intervention Deprexis® has proven to be effective in improving overall depression severity. The current pragmatic randomized controlled trial included 1013 participants with mild to moderate symptomatology and aimed to identify the symptom-specific effects of the internet-based intervention Deprexis (intervention group) in compar...

Objective: This study analyses the psychometric properties of the Working Alliance Inventory adapted for guided Internet interventions (WAI-I). Methods: We drew on the data set from a multicenter trial that examined a guided Internet intervention (deprexis) for patients with mild to moderate depression. Two hundred twenty-three patients complete...

Background Depression often remains undiagnosed or treated inadequately. Web-based interventions for depression may improve accessibility of treatment and reduce disease-related costs. This study aimed to examine the potential of the web-based cognitive behavioral intervention “deprexis” in reducing disease-related costs. Methods Participants with...

SUMMARY: Electronically delivered cognitive behavioural therapy (eCBT) for depression is often regarded as an efficient treatment to augment antidepressant medication or face-to-face (FtF) CBT. Indeed, meta-analyses have shown that some eCBT interventions are effective, although they differ in content and efficacy. Little is known, however, about t...

Objective Depression and anxiety are highly prevalent among people with epilepsy (PwE) but often remain unrecognized and treated inadequately. Effective psychosocial treatments such as cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) are rarely available to most PwE, which is one reason electronically delivered CBT (eCBT) is regarded as promising. This study exa...

Background: In 2012, approximately 3.38 million people in Germany had an alcoholrelated disorder. Internet interventions can help lower alcohol consumption, albeit with mostly small effect sizes. It is still unclear whether the effectiveness of programs aimed at lowering alcohol consumption can be improved by individually adjusting program content...

To date, only few studies have attempted to investigate non-ignorable dropout during Internet-based interventions by applying an NMAR model, which includes missing data indicators in its equations. Here, the Muthen-Roy model was used to investigate change and dropout patterns in a sample of patients with mild-to-moderate depression symptoms (N = 48...

Background Some Internet interventions are regarded as effective treatments for adult depression, but less is known about who responds to this form of treatment. Method An elastic net and random forest were trained to predict depression symptoms and related disability after an 8-week course of an Internet intervention, Deprexis, involving adults (...

Der Beitrag zeigt Möglichkeiten und Risiken verschiedener internetgestützter, psychotherapeutischer Behandlungsoptionen. In der „E-Therapie“ nutzen Therapeuten das Internet zu Kommunikationszwecken, indem sie per Video-, Audio, E-Mail, oder Chat-Programmen mit Patienten kommunizieren, wobei aus berufsrechtlicher Sicht hier besondere Vorsicht gebote...

Background: Blended cognitive behavioural therapy (bCBT), which combines face-to-face (FtF), and internet-based cognitive behavioural therapy (iCBT), may be a particularly promising approach, but little is known about the effectiveness and patients' subjective evaluations of the bCBT format. The aim of this qualitative study is to explore perceive...

Background Psychological online interventions (POIs) for depression have demonstrated promising effects. However, there are fewer randomized controlled studies on POIs among older adults with depression. The goal of the present study was to compare the use and efficacy of Deprexis, an online intervention for depression, among Millennials (ages 18-3...

Objective Fatigue is a major disabling symptom in many chronic diseases including multiple sclerosis (MS), but treatment options are limited.Here, we tested the effectiveness of a self-guided , interactive, online fatigue management programme (ELEVIDA) based on principles of cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) and related psychotherapeutic approach...

Background Little is known about potential harmful effects as a consequence of self-guided internet-based cognitive behaviour therapy (iCBT), such as symptom deterioration rates. Thus, safety concerns remain and hamper the implementation of self-guided iCBT into clinical practice. We aimed to conduct an individual participant data (IPD) meta-analys...

Background: Most individuals with depression do not receive adequate treatment. Internet interventions may help to bridge this gap. Research on attitudes toward Internet interventions might facilitate the dissemination of such interventions by identifying factors that help or hinder uptake and implementation, and by clarifying who is likely to ben...

Background Web-based interventions for individuals with depressive disorders have been a recent focus of research and may be an effective adjunct to face-to-face psychotherapy or pharmacological treatment. Objective The aim of our study was to examine the early change patterns in Web-based interventions to identify differential effects. Methods W...

Background: Adherence to Internet interventions is often reported to be rather low and this might adversely impact the effectiveness of these interventions. We investigated if patient characteristics are associated with adherence, and if adherence is associated with treatment outcome in a large RCT of an Internet intervention for depression, the E...

Background: Depressive disorders place a significant disease burden on individuals as well as on societies. Several web-based interventions for depression have shown to be effective in reducing depressive symptoms. However, it is not known whether web-based interventions, when used as adjunctive treatment tools to regular psychotherapy, have an add...

Internet interventions may help bridging gaps in the treatment of depression but dissemination is slow in most countries. Attitudes towards these novel treatments options among health care professionals and potential users may be crucial for a successful implementation. We recruited 1004 adults with mild to moderate depression symptoms within a ran...

Reply to Dr Moritz We thank Dr Moritz for his correspondence and we also note the considerable contribution he has made on several of the papers ultimately included in our meta-analysis. In relation to the issue raised, we make the following points: 1. To safeguard against a potential conflict of interest, we decided that Dr Meyer – a developer o...

Objective This study aims to examine whether the effects of internet interventions for depression generalise to participants recruited in clinical settings. Design This study uses subgroup analysis of the results of a randomised, controlled, single-blind trial. Setting The study takes place in five diagnostic centres in Germany. Participants A t...

Background: Internet interventions are effective in treating depressive symptoms but few studies conducted a long-term follow-up. The aim of this study was to test the effectiveness of an internet intervention in increasing the remission rate over a twelve months period. Methods: A total of 1013 participants with mild to moderate depressive symp...

Background: While the efficacy of Internet interventions for depression has been demonstrated in numerous studies, there is concern that the participants in these studies may systematically differ from depressed subjects in the general population. The goal of this study was to compare participants in a large trial of an Internet intervention for de...

Computerised cognitive behavioural therapy (cCBT) programmes differ widely but have rarely been evaluated separately through meta-analysis. Through a meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials, we investigated the effectiveness of ‘Deprexis’, an unconventional and individually-tailored cCBT programme for depression. Comparisons from eight studie...

Importance: Self-guided internet-based cognitive behavioral therapy (iCBT) has the potential to increase access and availability of evidence-based therapy and reduce the cost of depression treatment. Objectives: To estimate the effect of self-guided iCBT in treating adults with depressive symptoms compared with controls and evaluate the moderati...

Background Multiple Sclerosis (MS) is an inflammatory and neurodegenerative disease often causing decreased quality of life, social withdrawal and unemployment. Studies examining the effect of pharmacological interventions demonstrated only minor effects, whereas non-pharmacological interventions as e.g. patient education programs have shown promis...

PRISMA checklist. (DOC)

Search strategy for PubMed. (TIF)

Finlayson initially requested teleconf data (Cochrane review, May 25 2014). (DOCX)

Objective: To examine the effectiveness of an Internet intervention for depression with a randomized, controlled trial in a large sample of adults recruited from the United States. Method: The current study examines the effectiveness of Deprexis, an Internet treatment for depression that was provided with relatively minimal support. There were 3...

Background: Depression is common among persons with epilepsy (PwE), affecting roughly one in three individuals, and its presence is associated with personal suffering, impaired quality of life, and worse prognosis. Despite the availability of effective treatments, depression is often overlooked and treated inadequately in PwE, in part because of a...

Objective: To compare treatment effect estimates obtained from a Regression Discontinuity (RD) design with results from an actual randomized controlled trial (RCT). Study design and setting: Data from an RCT (EVIDENT), which studied the effect of an internet intervention on depressive symptoms measured with the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-...

Background: Internet-based cognitive behavioural treatment (ICBT) for anxiety disorders has shown some promise, but no study has yet examined unguided ICBT in primary care. This randomised controlled trial (RCT) investigated whether a transdiagnostic, unguided ICBT-programme for anxiety disorders is effective in primary care settings, after a face-...

Background: Mild 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. Methods: This trial was controlled, randomized and...

Background Problem drinking is an important global health concern, causing premature mortality and morbidity. Only few problem drinkers seek professional care, unfortunately, because of multiple barriers such as insufficient change motivation, fear of stigmatization or limited access to care. The aim of this study will be to examine the effectivene...

We aimed to reduce the large body of factors which may be associated with the change process in treatments for Anorexia Nervosa (AN) into a clinically and scientifically useful number of higher-rank dimensions. In addition, we examined the associations between the identified factors and eating disorder psychopathology and body mass index (BMI) in e...

Immer mehr Menschen nehmen heutzutage eine Psychotherapie in Anspruch. Die gesetzlich geregelte Bedarfsplanung führt allerdings zu langen Wartezeiten, die den Beginn einer Behandlung unnötig verzögern. Liegt es da nicht nahe, die technischen Möglichkeiten des Internets für einen sofortigen Therapiebeginn zu nutzen? Erfolgsversprechende Forschungser...

Received: October 14, 2014 Accepted: March 03, 2015 Published online: May 23, 2015 Issue release date: June 2015

It is well known that web-based interventions can be effective treatments for depression. However, dropout rates in web-based interventions are typically high, especially in self-guided web-based interventions. Rigorous empirical evidence regarding factors influencing dropout in self-guided web-based interventions is lacking due to small study samp...

Background: Studies have shown that certain Internet interventions can help alleviate depression. However, many such interventions contain personal support elements, making it difficult to ascertain whether the program or the support drives the effects. Studies are needed to investigate whether Internet interventions contribute to symptom reduction...

Background Major depressive disorder (MDD) places a significant disease burden on individuals as well as on societies. Several web-based interventions for MDD have shown to be effective in reducing depressive symptoms. However, it is not known whether web-based interventions, when used as adjunctive treatment tools to regular psychotherapy, have an...

Internetbasierte Programme könnten in Zukunft eine wichtige Rolle in der Routine-Depressionsbehandlung in Deutschland spielen und vielen Patienten eine wertvolle Hilfestellung bieten. Ärzte und Psychotherapeuten sollten aber vor dem Einsatz auf den Nachweis von Wirksamkeit und akzeptabler Effektstärke bestehen. Etablierte evidenzbasierte Behandlung...

Verbal thoughts (such as negative cognitions) and sensory phenomena (such as visual mental imagery) are usually conceptualised as distinct mental experiences. The present study examined to what extent depressive thoughts are accompanied by sensory experiences and how this is associated with symptom severity, insight of illness and quality of life....

An experimental study investigated self-esteem and other-esteem responses to either fully supportive or less supportive interpersonal feedback in college students with avoidant and borderline personality disorder features (APD and BPD respectively). Disturbances in self-esteem and in evaluations of others are central to definitions of both APD and...

To compare the predictive validity and clinical utility of DSM-IV somatoform disorders and DSM-5 Somatic Symptom Disorder (SSD) at 12-month follow-up. In a sample of psychosomatic inpatients (n=322, mean age=45.6years (SD 10.0), 60.6% females) we prospectively investigated DSM-IV somatoform disorders and the DSM-5 diagnosis of SSD plus a variety of...

Depressive disorders are among the leading causes of worldwide disability with mild to moderate forms of depression being particularly common. Low-intensity treatments such as online psychological treatments may be an effective way to treat mild to moderate depressive symptoms and prevent the emergence or relapse of major depression.Methods/design:...

Psychological symptoms of somatoform disorders will be part of their new definition in DSM-5. We developed the Somatic Symptoms Experiences Questionnaire (SSEQ) as a self-report questionnaire to assess important psychological characteristics of patients with somatoform disorders. Item selection and identification of factor structure, as well as rel...

Objective: Anorexia nervosa (AN) is a debilitating and often chronic and treatment-resistant disorder. Despite decades of theoretical progress and research, many questions remain with regard to the psychological mechanisms explaining why and how some AN patients respond to treatment whereas others do not. Based on the premise that the broader, non...

Objective To assess how initial severity of depression affects the benefit derived from low intensity interventions for depression. Design Meta-analysis of individual patient data from 16 datasets comparing low intensity interventions with usual care. Setting Primary care and community settings. Participants 2470 patients with depression. Intervent...