We are proud to announce the launch of Internet Interventions: The application of information technology in mental and behavioural health, a new Open Access journal that will provide a new home for high quality manuscripts in the field of Internet Interventions.
The Internet is increasingly used for delivering interventions aimed at improving mental and physical health. Internet interventions — often self-guided or partly self-guided — have proven effective in treating a number of psychiatric conditions, including depression, panic syndrome, social anxiety disorder, posttraumatic stress disorder, eating disorders, and insomnia, as well as more general medical conditions, including headache, back pain, tinnitus, diabetes management, problem drinking and smoking cessation. The increase in interest in Internet interventions can be traced to the many unique advantages: Internet interventions are geographically independent and cost-efficient. In addition to the advantages of lowering the help-seeking threshold and providing evidence-based healthcare to larger numbers, technological advances allow for novel intervention components, such as user-friendly visual screening instruments, video-based exposure therapy, interactive role-playing, automated reasoning models and more. Having received the approval of government and medical insurers, Internet interventions have already been integrated into the regular healthcare systems in the US and UK, and in Sweden, the Netherlands and Australia, to name a few examples. This new journal is backed up by the European Society for Research on Internet Interventions (ESRII).
INVENT aims to provide a platform and a forum whereby researchers are encouraged to publish papers on the following subjects:
- Intervention studies targeting the promotion of mental health and featuring the Internet and/or technologies using the Internet as an underlying technology, e.g.computers, smartphone devices, tablets, sensors.
- Systematic reviews and meta-analysis on Internet interventions.
- Internet intervention methodology and theory papers.
- Internet-based epidemiology.
- Internet psychometrics.
- Ethical issues pertaining to Internet interventions and measurements.
- Health care policy and Internet interventions.
- Economics of internet interventions (cost effectiveness).
