%0 Journal Article
%@ 1438-8871
%I JMIR Publications
%V 26
%N 
%P e58198
%T We Have Spent Time, Money, and Effort Making Self-Help Digital Mental Health Interventions: Is Anyone Going to Come to the Party?
%A Fitzpatrick,Skye
%A Crenshaw,Alexander O
%A Donkin,Victoria
%A Collins,Alexis
%A Xiang,Angela
%A Earle,Elizabeth A
%A Goenka,Kamya
%A Varma,Sonya
%A Bushe,Julianne
%A McFadden,Tara
%A Librado,Andrea
%A Monson,Candice
%+ York University, 4700 Keele St, Toronto, ON, M3J1P3, Canada, 1 4167362100 ext 66214, skyefitz@yorku.ca
%K online interventions
%K self-help
%K digital interventions
%K mental health
%K psychotherapy
%K intervention desirability
%D 2024
%7 19.9.2024
%9 Viewpoint
%J J Med Internet Res
%G English
%X Although efficacious psychotherapies exist, a limited number of mental health care providers and significant demand make their accessibility a fundamental problem. Clinical researchers, funders, and investors alike have converged on self-help digital mental health interventions (self-help DMHIs) as a low-cost, low-burden, and broadly scalable solution to the global mental health burden. Consequently, exorbitant financial and time-based resources have been invested in developing, testing, and disseminating these interventions. However, the public’s assumed desirability for self-help DMHIs by experts has largely proceeded without question. This commentary critically evaluates whether self-help DMHIs can, and will, reach their purported potential as a solution to the public burden of mental illness, with an emphasis on evaluating their real-world desirability. Our review finds that self-help DMHIs are often perceived as less desirable and credible than in-person treatments, with lower usage rates and, perhaps accordingly, clinical trials testing self-help DMHIs suffering from widespread recruitment challenges. We highlight two fundamental challenges that may be interfering with the desirability of, and engagement in, self-help DMHIs: (1) difficulty competing with technology companies that have advantages in resources, marketing, and user experience design (but may not be delivering evidence-based interventions) and (2) difficulty retaining (vs initially attracting) users. We discuss a range of potential solutions, including highlighting self-help DMHIs in public mental health awareness campaigns; public education about evidence-based interventions that can guide consumers to appropriate self-help DMHI selection; increased financial and expert support to clinical researchers for marketing, design, and user experience in self-help DMHI development; increased involvement of stakeholders in the design of self-help DMHIs; and investing in more research on ways to improve retention (versus initial engagement). We suggest that, through these efforts, self-help DMHIs may fully realize their promise for reducing the global burden of mental illness.
%R 10.2196/58198
%U https://www.jmir.org/2024/1/e58198
%U https://doi.org/10.2196/58198