Conflict of interest in trials of internet-based interventions for depression: Systematic review and meta-regression.
Objective: To investigate (a) the prevalence of industry sponsorship (InS), researchers' financial conflicts of interest (RFCOI) and researcher allegiance (RA) in clinical trials of internet-based interventions (IBI) for depression and (b) their possible relation with treatment effects. Method: We c...
| Publicado en: | Psychotherapy Research Vol. 36; no. 5; pp. 845 - 856 |
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| Autores principales: | , , , , , , , |
| Formato: | Literature Review |
| Publicado: |
Taylor & Francis Ltd
Jun2026
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| Materias: | |
| Acceso en línea: | Ver este registro en EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ssf&AN=193980068&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: ssf uiTerm: 193980068 longDbName: Social Sciences Full Text (H.W. Wilson) uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: jinfo: jid: 10503307 10T jtl: Psychotherapy Research issn: 10503307 maglogo: N pubinfo: dt: Jun2026 vid: 36 iid: 5 pid: 377 pub: Taylor & Francis Ltd artinfo: ui: 193980068 10.1080/10503307.2025.2538549 ppf: 845 ppct: 11 formats: tig: atl: Conflict of interest in trials of internet-based interventions for depression: Systematic review and meta-regression. aug: au: Munder, Thomas Barthelmes, Berit Weber, Lenny Flückiger, Christoph Kerber, André Krieger, Tobias Watzke, Birgit Wolf, Markus affil: Department of Psychology, University of Kassel, Kassel, Germany Department of Psychology, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland Department of Psychology, University of Illinois Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA Division of Clinical Psychological Intervention, Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin, Germany Institute of Psychology, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland Population Research Center, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland su: Clinical trials Mental depression Conflict of interests Digital health Evidence synthesis Treatment effectiveness Research funding sug: subj: Clinical trials Mental depression Research and Development in the Physical, Engineering, and Life Sciences (except Biotechnology) Conflict of interests Digital health Evidence synthesis Treatment effectiveness Research funding keyword: depression financial conflict of interest industry sponsorship internet-based interventions meta-analysis researcher allegiance depression financial conflict of interest industry sponsorship internet-based interventions meta-analysis researcher allegiance ab: Objective: To investigate (a) the prevalence of industry sponsorship (InS), researchers' financial conflicts of interest (RFCOI) and researcher allegiance (RA) in clinical trials of internet-based interventions (IBI) for depression and (b) their possible relation with treatment effects. Method: We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis of 94 comparisons of therapist-guided or self-guided IBI with a passive control group. Results: InS was present in 13 (38.24%) out of 34 comparisons of commercial IBI; RFCOI was present in 29 (30.85%), RA in 75 (79.79%) out of all 94 comparisons. In primary meta-regressions, presence of InS and RFCOI was significantly associated with larger treatment effects, while presence of RA was not. Overall, sensitivity analyses showed consistent results, but suggested differential results for trials of therapist-guided and self-guided IBI: While InS and RFCOI showed larger effects in trials of self-guided IBI, no effect was found for trials of therapist-guided IBI. Conclusion: InS, RFCOI, and RA are prevalent and should receive more attention in IBI research. The role of RA on outcome warrants further investigation because this meta-analysis did not include comparative trials. Small effect sizes in trials without InS or RFCOI suggest that current meta-analytic efficacy estimates of self-guided IBI for depression are overestimated. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: Literature Review src: R language: English refInfo: copyright: @attributes: flag: N holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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