Affiliation:
1. Discipline of Clinical Psychology, Graduate School of Health University of Technology Sydney New South Wales Australia
2. School of Psychology Western Sydney University Kingswood New South Wales Australia
Abstract
AbstractObjectivesObsessive‐compulsive disorder (OCD) is a chronic mental health disorder. Internet‐delivered cognitive behaviour therapy (ICBT) is demonstrated to be effective for OCD; however little is known about the acceptability of the treatment. Therefore the aim of this study was to examine the acceptability of ICBT for adults with OCD symptoms using a meta‐analytic approach.MethodSeventeen studies (N = 1661; Mage range = 28–41 years; 58%–93% female) were included in this analysis.ResultsThe random effects pooled estimates indicated that 16.3% (95% CI: 9.8%–25.7%) of participants did not commence the treatment once they were enrolled in the study, 27.6% (95% CI: 19.0%–38.2%) did not complete the treatment, and 27.0% (95% CI: 18.2%–38.0%) did not complete the post‐treatment questionnaires of the study. The mean score on the Client Satisfaction Questionnaire ranged from 22.4 to 26.5. Overall, pooled estimates indicated that 81.6% (95% CI: 76.1%–86.0%) of participants were satisfied with the ICBT intervention and 84.7% (95% CI: 72.8%–92.0%) indicated that they would recommend the treatment to a friend. Some of the acceptability moderator analyses indicated that self‐guided ICBT interventions had lower levels of acceptability compared with clinician‐guided interventions. However, given low power, these results should be considered preliminary.ConclusionsThis study has important implications in the dissemination of ICBT for OCD.