Efficacy of cognitive bias modification interventions in anxiety and depression: Meta-analysis

Cognitive bias modification (CBM) interventions are strongly advocated in research and clinical practice. To examine the efficiency of CBM for clinically relevant outcomes, along with study quality, publication bias and potential moderators. We included randomised controlled trials (RCTs) of CBM int...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:British journal of psychiatry Vol. 206; no. 1; pp. 7 - 16
Main Authors: Cristea, Ioana A., Kok, Robin N., Cuijpers, Pim
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: Cambridge, UK Cambridge University Press 01.01.2015
Subjects:
Anxiety - therapy
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
Depression - therapy
Humans
Publication Bias - statistics & numerical data
Review Article
Treatment Outcome
ISSN:0007-1250, 1472-1465, 1472-1465
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:Cognitive bias modification (CBM) interventions are strongly advocated in research and clinical practice. To examine the efficiency of CBM for clinically relevant outcomes, along with study quality, publication bias and potential moderators. We included randomised controlled trials (RCTs) of CBM interventions that reported clinically relevant outcomes assessed with standardised instruments. We identified 49 trials and grouped outcomes into anxiety and depression. Effect sizes were small considering all the samples, and mostly non-significant for patient samples. Effect sizes became non-significant when outliers were excluded and after adjustment for publication bias. The quality of the RCTs was suboptimal. CBM may have small effects on mental health problems, but it is also very well possible that there are no significant clinically relevant effects. Research in this field is hampered by small and low-quality trials, and by risk of publication bias. Many positive outcomes are driven by extreme outliers.
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ISSN:0007-1250
1472-1465
1472-1465
DOI:10.1192/bjp.bp.114.146761