Conclusions
anxiety, depressive symptoms, MDD, Household dysfunction, Depression
CHRONIC DISEASE, EVENTS, CHRONIC DISEASES
ICBT with general support delivered in this study showed greater short-term improvements in depressive symptoms, anxiety symptoms, nonspecific psychological distress, and general self-efficacy among select patients with MDD in comparison with the findings in waiting-list controls. It may be more suitable for implementation among people familiar with mobile phone and internet usage. Moreover, participants reported acceptability and satisfaction with our ICBT program, as evidenced by treatment adherence and participants’ feelings. Taken together, our results support the implementation of ICBT as an effective and scalable treatment option that increases access to mental health services among eligible people affected by MDD.The authors thank all the participants of the study. The Depression Cohort in China (DCC) is conducted by the Sun Yat-Sen University and Shenzhen Nanshan Center for Chronic Disease Control in Shenzhen, China. This work was supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (2018YFC2000705) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (81761128030).Authors' Contributions: All authors were responsible for the conceptualization and design of this study. ZL collected the data, performed the statistical analysis, and drafted the manuscript. LC participated in the statistical analysis and interpretation of the data. XH participated in the project administration and critical revision of the manuscript. HW, YL, and JS collected the data and revised the manuscript. BF, HZ, and YC coordinated this study and provided administrative and material support. KMT, MYJ, and RSM reviewed and revised the manuscript. LG and CL coordinated this study, supervised data collection, and reviewed and revised the manuscript. CL obtained funding. Generative artificial intelligence was not used in any portion of manuscript writing.Conflicts of Interest: RSM has received research grant support from Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR)/Global Alliance for Chronic Diseases (GACD)/National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) and speaker/consultation fees from Lundbeck, Janssen, Alkermes, Neumora Therapeutics, Mitsubishi Tanabe, Purdue, Pfizer, Otsuka, Takeda, Neurocrine, Sunovion, Bausch Health, Axsome, Novo Nordisk, Kris, Sanofi, Eisai, Intra-Cellular, NewBridge Pharmaceuticals, Abbvie, and Atai Life Sciences. RSM is the CEO of Braxia Scientific Corp. KMT has received personal fees from Braxia Scientific Corp.Outline of the treatment content and homework of the internet-based cognitive behavioral therapy program.Household dysfunction questionnaire.List of adverse life events.Questionnaire to assess participants’ acceptability of and satisfaction with the internet-based cognitive behavioral therapy program.Adjusted emotional symptom scores of participants who had experienced the outbreak of COVID-19 and those who had not at the posttreatment assessment in the study groups.CONSORT-EHEALTH checklist (V 1.6.1).