Screening people with anxiety/depression for suitability for guided self-help

Area of Science:

• Psychiatry
• Digital Health
• Clinical Psychology

Background:

• Computer-guided self-help interventions are increasingly used for anxiety and depression.
• Effective screening is crucial to match patients to appropriate interventions.
• Existing screening methods may not optimally identify suitability for specific digital mental health programs.

Purpose of the Study:

• To assess the validity and reliability of a questionnaire designed to screen patients with anxiety/depression for suitability for computer-guided self-help.
• To compare questionnaire-based suitability assessments with clinician-led screening interviews.

Main Methods:

• 196 referrals completed a screening questionnaire.
• Three independent clinicians assessed problem type and suitability based on the questionnaire.
• Referrals underwent a subsequent screening interview with one of the clinicians.
• Inter-rater reliability was calculated for both questionnaire and interview assessments.

Main Results:

• Good inter-clinician agreement was observed for questionnaire-based problem type and suitability.
• Excellent inter-clinician agreement was found for screening interview-based assessments.
• Agreement between the questionnaire and interview was good for problem type but poor for suitability.
• The questionnaire effectively identified suitable patients but was less effective in identifying unsuitable patients compared to the interview.

Conclusions:

• The questionnaire enables clinicians to efficiently identify suitable patients for specific self-help interventions.
• The tool demonstrates potential for sensitive detection of appropriate patient problem types.
• Refinements are needed to improve the questionnaire's accuracy in identifying unsuitable candidates.