E-COMPARED European Comparative Effectiveness Research on Internet-based Depression Treatment
RESEARCH PROJECT
E-COMPARED
European Comparative Effectiveness Research
on Internet-Based Depression Treatment
Duration of research project: 2014–2016
In 2010, 30 million Europeans were affected by depression and the number continues to grow. Half of the depression sufferers requiring mental care lack access to care services. Moreover, they do not always receive evidence-based treatments, are faced with long waiting lists or high costs of available support. Internet-based treatments have the potential to addresses these drawbacks of standard care and provide high quality affordable treatment to patients suffering from depression.
E-COMPARED (European Comparative Effectiveness Research on Internet-based Depression Treatment) project is conducted under the auspieces of EU’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7), project number 603098.
Research Objectives
Comparative Study
The E-COMPARED project will focus on conducting comparative effectiveness research, in routine specialized mental care settings, on the cost and treatment effectiveness of internet-based depression management, in comparison with the effectiveness of standard care. Researchers will take into account various health care systems, health policies, the existing information and communication technology (ICT) infrastructure and its uptake in 11 European countries, including Belgium, France, Germany, Ireland, Poland, Portugal, Sweden, Switzerland, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom.
Research Team
The E-COMPARED project team comprises specialists from the following disciplines: psychology, Health Technology Assessment (HTA), ICT, and care. The team members are leaders in internet-based treatments for common mental health disorders, thanks to their participation in the EU’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7) that includes projects such as ICT4Depression and ROAMER.
Project Goals
The E-COMPARED project aims to:
1) Evaluate the EU mental health policies/guidelines for standard and Internet-based care for depression sufferers, in specialized care settings, in countries with different health care systems and access levels to standard and internet-based care.
2) Compare clinical efficacy and cost-effectiveness of internet-based treatments and traditional treatments, within controlled research settings.
3) Carry out pragmatic randomized controlled trials to study how internet-based depression treatments can be effectively implemented within the routine specialized care settings.
4) Predict which patient groups could benefit from internet-based treatments vs. standard treatments, by modeling patient characteristics.
5) Develop evidence based recommendations on how internet-based depression treatments can be cost-effectively integrated into routine specialized care systems for depression sufferers in the EU and develop a business case to ensure structural implementation of these services.
E-COMPARED project webpage: www.e-compared.eu
Our interdisciplinary team comprises psychologists, psychiatrists, public health and health economics experts, statisticians, and information technology and communication technology specialists. Our goal is to improve access to high quality care for people who suffer from depression. In Poland alone, 3% of the population suffer from this mental disorder. The E-COMPARED project has the potential to change the standard of care for depression therapy.
Research Team
Consortium:
- VU University Amsterdam – the Netherlands
- Linköpings University – Sweden
- Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlange-Nürnberg – Germany
- London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine – United Kingdom
- Stichting GGZ inGeest – the Netherlands
- Universitat Jaume I De Castellon – Spain
- Leuphana Universität Lünenberg – Germany
- University of Limerick – Ireland
- Universtität Bern – Switzerland
- Universitat de València – Spain
- SWPS University of Social Sciences and Humanities – Poland
- Inesc Porto – Portugal
- Gamian – Belgium
- Inserm – France