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Digital mental health interventions for anxiety and depressive symptoms in university students during the COVID-19 pandemic: A systematic review of randomized controlled trials
University students are particularly vulnerable to mental health issues, with anxiety and depression identified as the most common conditions. During the COVID-19 pandemic, social distancing, self-isolation, and difficulties linked to online teaching and learning have increased their burden of anxie...
Autores principales: | , , , , , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
SEP y SEPB. Published by Elsevier España, S.L.U.
2023
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9212872/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35755491 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.rpsm.2022.04.005 |
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author | Riboldi, Ilaria Cavaleri, Daniele Calabrese, Angela Capogrosso, Chiara Alessandra Piacenti, Susanna Bartoli, Francesco Crocamo, Cristina Carrà, Giuseppe |
author_facet | Riboldi, Ilaria Cavaleri, Daniele Calabrese, Angela Capogrosso, Chiara Alessandra Piacenti, Susanna Bartoli, Francesco Crocamo, Cristina Carrà, Giuseppe |
author_sort | Riboldi, Ilaria |
collection | PubMed |
description | University students are particularly vulnerable to mental health issues, with anxiety and depression identified as the most common conditions. During the COVID-19 pandemic, social distancing, self-isolation, and difficulties linked to online teaching and learning have increased their burden of anxiety and depressive symptoms. Thus, the urgent need to intervene in favour of these vulnerable subjects, together with the difficulties in delivering in-person interventions because of lockdowns and restrictions, has led to prioritize digital mental health strategies. This study aimed at systematically reviewing the existing literature on digital mental health interventions targeting anxiety and depressive symptoms in university students during the COVID-19 emergency. Systematic searches of Medline, Embase, and PsycInfo databases identified eight randomized controlled trials. Regarding anxiety symptoms, digitally delivered cognitive behavioural therapy, dialectical behaviour therapy, and mind-body practice techniques emerged as valid strategies, while digital positive psychology and mindfulness-based interventions showed mixed results. On the other hand, digitally delivered dialectical behaviour therapy and positive psychology interventions have shown some efficacy in reducing depressive symptoms. Overall, the available literature, albeit of low quality, seems to support the role of digital interventions in promoting the mental health of university students during the COVID-19 pandemic. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-9212872 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2023 |
publisher | SEP y SEPB. Published by Elsevier España, S.L.U. |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-92128722022-06-22 Digital mental health interventions for anxiety and depressive symptoms in university students during the COVID-19 pandemic: A systematic review of randomized controlled trials Riboldi, Ilaria Cavaleri, Daniele Calabrese, Angela Capogrosso, Chiara Alessandra Piacenti, Susanna Bartoli, Francesco Crocamo, Cristina Carrà, Giuseppe Rev Psiquiatr Salud Ment Article University students are particularly vulnerable to mental health issues, with anxiety and depression identified as the most common conditions. During the COVID-19 pandemic, social distancing, self-isolation, and difficulties linked to online teaching and learning have increased their burden of anxiety and depressive symptoms. Thus, the urgent need to intervene in favour of these vulnerable subjects, together with the difficulties in delivering in-person interventions because of lockdowns and restrictions, has led to prioritize digital mental health strategies. This study aimed at systematically reviewing the existing literature on digital mental health interventions targeting anxiety and depressive symptoms in university students during the COVID-19 emergency. Systematic searches of Medline, Embase, and PsycInfo databases identified eight randomized controlled trials. Regarding anxiety symptoms, digitally delivered cognitive behavioural therapy, dialectical behaviour therapy, and mind-body practice techniques emerged as valid strategies, while digital positive psychology and mindfulness-based interventions showed mixed results. On the other hand, digitally delivered dialectical behaviour therapy and positive psychology interventions have shown some efficacy in reducing depressive symptoms. Overall, the available literature, albeit of low quality, seems to support the role of digital interventions in promoting the mental health of university students during the COVID-19 pandemic. SEP y SEPB. Published by Elsevier España, S.L.U. 2023 2022-06-20 /pmc/articles/PMC9212872/ /pubmed/35755491 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.rpsm.2022.04.005 Text en © 2022 SEP y SEPB. Published by Elsevier España, S.L.U. All rights reserved. Since January 2020 Elsevier has created a COVID-19 resource centre with free information in English and Mandarin on the novel coronavirus COVID-19. The COVID-19 resource centre is hosted on Elsevier Connect, the company's public news and information website. Elsevier hereby grants permission to make all its COVID-19-related research that is available on the COVID-19 resource centre - including this research content - immediately available in PubMed Central and other publicly funded repositories, such as the WHO COVID database with rights for unrestricted research re-use and analyses in any form or by any means with acknowledgement of the original source. These permissions are granted for free by Elsevier for as long as the COVID-19 resource centre remains active. |
spellingShingle | Article Riboldi, Ilaria Cavaleri, Daniele Calabrese, Angela Capogrosso, Chiara Alessandra Piacenti, Susanna Bartoli, Francesco Crocamo, Cristina Carrà, Giuseppe Digital mental health interventions for anxiety and depressive symptoms in university students during the COVID-19 pandemic: A systematic review of randomized controlled trials |
title | Digital mental health interventions for anxiety and depressive symptoms in university students during the COVID-19 pandemic: A systematic review of randomized controlled trials |
title_full | Digital mental health interventions for anxiety and depressive symptoms in university students during the COVID-19 pandemic: A systematic review of randomized controlled trials |
title_fullStr | Digital mental health interventions for anxiety and depressive symptoms in university students during the COVID-19 pandemic: A systematic review of randomized controlled trials |
title_full_unstemmed | Digital mental health interventions for anxiety and depressive symptoms in university students during the COVID-19 pandemic: A systematic review of randomized controlled trials |
title_short | Digital mental health interventions for anxiety and depressive symptoms in university students during the COVID-19 pandemic: A systematic review of randomized controlled trials |
title_sort | digital mental health interventions for anxiety and depressive symptoms in university students during the covid-19 pandemic: a systematic review of randomized controlled trials |
topic | Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9212872/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35755491 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.rpsm.2022.04.005 |
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