The Unified Protocol as an Internet-based Intervention for Emotional Disorders: Randomized Controlled Trial

Abstract

The Unified Protocol (UP) as a transdiagnostic intervention has primarily been applied in the treatment of anxiety disorders and in face-to-face-settings. The current study investigated the efficacy of a 10-week internet-based adaptation of the UP for anxiety, depressive, and somatic symptom disorders. N=129 participants were randomized to treatment or waitlist control. Linear mixed effect models revealed significant treatment effects for symptom distress, satisfaction with life, positive/negative affect and markers of anxiety, depression, and somatic symptom burden (within-group Hedges’ g = 0.32-1.38 and between-group g = 0.20-1.11). Treatment gains were maintained at 1- and 6-month-follow-up. Subgroup analyses showed comparable effects in participants with anxiety and depressive disorders. The results strengthen the application of the UP as an internet-based treatment for alleviating symptom distress across emotional disorders. More research on the applicability for single disorders and the mechanisms underlying the effects is needed.

Cite this work

No public copy is stored for this record, so only the metadata is cited.

Stored only when both papers are in the corpus — 9 citations exist upstream.

Papers that cite the same references — the relational fallback while embeddings are still backfilling.