Abstract
Background: Evidence for the efficacy of web-based treatments for depression has increased substantially the last few years. However, many of these programs obtain poor effect sizes or fail to become a part of routine practice. Such issues could be due to a knowledge gap on how these interventions should be implemented. Objective: The primary aim of this study is to examine what is known from the existing literature about implementation of internet interventions for depression. Method: A systematic scoping review of English and Scandinavian-language articles was carried out on 12 databases. Additional papers were identified by contacting relevant societies, as well as hand-searching journals and reference lists. Only empirical studies on internet-based interventions for depression were included. Relevant articles were subjected to a directed content analysis, using May and Finch s (2009) Normalization Process Theory (NPT) as a theoretical framework to identify implementation information. Results: 7 076 citations were identified and screened for relevance, resulting in 255 full-text articles on internet interventions for depression, of which 51 % were relevant to the implementation framework (N = 130). Content analysis revealed that there was a substantial lack of reporting on implementation. Furthermore, researchers tend to use a non-systematic approach when reporting on implementation and often fail to consider the different organizational levels involved in putting an intervention into practice. Conclusion: The review identified considerable knowledge gaps in the literature. These findings indicate that the field of internet interventions for depression require a great deal of research on implementation, especially in areas that relate to other levels than intervention users.