Single-Session Interventions Produce Small Depression Reductions

A Dartmouth-led team published a Nature Human Behaviour paper in 2024 reporting results from a randomized trial that assigned 7,505 American adults to one of 12 self-guided, under-10-minute single-session interventions or a control. They found two interventions—Interactive Cognitive Reappraisal and Finding Focus—produced about a 4% greater reduction in depressive symptoms at one month versus control, indicating modest, scalable benefits.