Web-Based Cognitive Bias Intervention for Psychiatric Disorders: Protocol for a Systematic Review

BACKGROUND: Traditional psychological therapies focus mainly on modification of individuals’ conscious decision-making process. Unconscious processes, such as cognitive biases, have been found accountable for various psychiatric psychopathologies, and advances in technologies have transformed how bias modification programs are being delivered. OBJECTIVE: The primary aim of this review is to synthesize evidence of Web-based cognitive bias modification intervention for bias reduction. The secondary aim is to determine the change in symptoms for individual psychiatric disorders following bias modification. METHODS: A systematic review will be conducted including only randomized trials. There will be no restrictions on participants included in the study. A search will be conducted on the respective databases until 2017. Selection of studies will be by the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA-P) guidelines. Quality assessment of included studies will be conducted using the Cochrane Risk of Bias tool. A narrative synthesis of identified articles will then be conducted. A meta-analysis will be considered only if there are sufficient articles in a domain for statistical analysis. Ethical approval for this protocol and the planned systematic review was not required. RESULTS: We expect that the review will be completed 12 months from publication of this protocol. CONCLUSIONS: This review is of importance given how technology has transformed delivery of conventional therapies. Findings from this review will guide future research involving technology and cognitive bias modification interventions. TRIAL REGISTRATION: International Prospective Register for Systematic Reviews (PROSPERO): 2017 CRD42017074754; https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/prospero/display_record.php?RecordID=74754 (Archived by WebCite at http://www.webcitation.org/ 71AvSgZGn) REGISTERED REPORT IDENTIFIER: RR1-10.2196/10427