Background: Depression and anxiety are prevalent comorbidities in people with long-term physical health conditions; however, there is limited access to evidence-based treatments for comorbid mental health difficulties.
Purpose: This study is a meta-analysis examining the effectiveness of cognitive behavioural self-help for physical symptoms, depression and anxiety in people with long-term conditions.
Methods: This study involves a systematic search of electronic databases supplemented by expert contact, reference and citation checking and grey literature.
Results: The meta-analysis yielded a small effect size for 11 studies reporting primary outcomes of depression (g = -0.20) and 8 studies anxiety (g = -0.21) with a large effect size (g = -1.14) for 1 study examining physical health symptoms. There were no significant moderators of the main effect.
Conclusions: Limited evidence supports cognitive behavioural self-help for depression, anxiety and physical symptoms in people with long-term conditions. Small effect sizes for depression and anxiety may result from failure to recruit participants with clinical levels of these difficulties at baseline.