Alexander Rozental|Gerhard Andersson|Johanna Boettcher|David Daniel Ebert|Pim Cuijpers|Christine Knaevelsrud|Brjánn Ljótsson|Viktor Kaldo|Nickolai Titov|Per Carlbring
Consensus statement on defining and measuring negative effects of Internet interventions
Stockholm University|Swedish Institute|Linköping University|Karolinska Institutet|Freie Universität Berlin|Philipps University of Marburg|Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam|Freie Universität Berlin|Karolinska Institutet|Karolinska Institutet|Macquarie University|Stockholm University
internet interventions great potential alleviating emotional distress promoting mental health enhancing wellbeing numerous clinical trials demonstrated efficacy number psychiatric conditions interventions delivered via internet likely become common alternative facetoface treatment meanwhile research paid little attention negative effects associated treatment warranting investigation possibility patients might deteriorate encounter adverse events despite receiving best available care evidence research facetoface treatment suggests negative effects afflict 510 patients undergoing treatment terms deterioration however currently lack consensus define measure negative effects psychotherapy research general leaving researchers without practical guidelines monitoring reporting negative effects clinical trials current paper therefore seeks provide recommendations could promote study negative effects internet interventions aim increasing knowledge occurrence characteristics ten leading experts field internet interventions invited participate share perspective explore negative effects using delphi technique facilitate dialog reach agreement authors discuss importance conducting research negative effects order understanding incidence different features suggestions classify measure negative effects internet interventions proposed involving methods quantitative qualitative research potential mechanisms underlying negative effects also discussed differentiating common factors shared facetoface treatments unique treatments delivered via internet authors conclude negative effects expected need acknowledged greater extent advising researchers systematically probe negative effects whenever conducting clinical trials involving internet interventions well share findings scientific journals