Preferences, tailoring, and self-tailoring in internet-delivered treatments: lessons learned

Internet-delivered psychological treatments have been developed and tested in many trials and are also implemented.

The authors focus on treatment preferences when clients are allowed to choose treatment orientation and how the treatment is set up. The literature was searched using Medline, Google Scholar and Scopus in November 2025, locating eight preference studies. They showed benefits in treatment satisfaction when preferences are included and possibly improved outcomes. The second focus was on tailored internet-delivered cognitive behavior therapy (ICBT). The authors review six recent controlled studies published from 2000 onwards on various subjects including COVID-19, domestic violence, chronic pain, climate distress, depression in older adults in Lithuania, and young adults with anxiety and depression in Brazil. These examples are in line with previous findings showing that tailored ICBT is effective, despite there being no clear benefits over diagnosis-specific or transdiagnostic ICBT. Finally, the authors reviewed published findings from two trials demonstrating that self-tailoring can work without clinician input.

There are robust findings showing that tailored internet interventions are effective, with further indication that preferences and self-tailoring may work too. Future research will likely incorporate artificial intelligence tools to a greater extent to improve treatment efficacy.