WEDNESDAY, Dec. 18, 2024 -- A brief self-guided cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) intervention is noninferior to clinician-guided CBT for atopic dermatitis (AD), according to a study published online Dec. 18 in JAMA Dermatology.

Dorian Kern, Ph.D., from the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, and colleagues conducted a single-blind randomized noninferiority trial involving adults with AD. Participants were randomly assigned to a self-guided online CBT intervention for 12 weeks without clinician support or to a clinician-guided online CBT intervention for 12 weeks (86 and 82 participants, respectively).

The researchers found that postintervention, the clinician-guided group and self-guided group improved 4.20 and 4.60 points on the self-reported Patient-Oriented Eczema Measure, corresponding to an estimated 0.36-point mean difference in change, which was below the noninferiority margin of 3 points. There were no reports of serious adverse events. Clinicians spent a mean of 36.0 minutes of treatment guidance and 14.0 minutes on assessments in the clinician-guided group compared with 15.8 minutes on assessments in the self-guided group.

"The findings support a self-guided intervention as a noninferior and cost-effective alternative to a previously evaluated clinician-guided treatment," the authors write. "Because psychological interventions are rare in dermatological care, this study is an important step toward implementation of CBT for people with AD."

Several authors disclosed ties to the pharmaceutical and publishing industries.