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Self help // Reference

Facts and figures

The numbers behind the self help guides, each with its source. Figures are stated as the source states them.

  • In 2023, nearly 1 in every 7 people (1.2 billion) around the world were living with a mental disorder, with anxiety and depressive disorders the most common.[1]
  • In 2023, 322 million people were living with depression, including 43 million children and adolescents.[1]
  • Only one third of people with depression receive formal mental health care.[1]
  • Every year 727 000 people take their own life and there are many more people who make suicide attempts.[2]
  • Lally and colleagues found that the time taken to reach 95% of the asymptote of automaticity ranged from 18 to 254 days; the model fitted for 62 individuals, of whom 39 showed a good fit.[3]
  • A meta-analysis of 138 randomised studies (N = 19,951) found that interventions promoting monitoring of goal progress improved goal attainment (d+ = 0.40, 95% CI 0.32 to 0.48).[4]
  • A meta-analysis of 45 articles (n = 5912) reported a medium, positive effect of goal setting interventions on physical activity behaviour (Cohen's d = .552).[5]
  • A meta-analysis of 21 studies with 810 participants found a difference between guided self-help and face-to-face psychotherapy of d = -0.02 at post-test, in favour of guided self-help.[6]
  • In an individual patient data analysis of 39 studies comprising 9751 participants, guided internet CBT outperformed unguided by -0.8 PHQ-9 points after treatment, with no evidence of a difference at 6 or 12 months.[7]
  • In the Open Science Collaboration's replication of 100 psychology studies, 97% of original studies had statistically significant results, compared with 36% of replications.[8]
  • A preregistered ego-depletion project across 36 laboratories (N = 3,531) found a nonsignificant confirmatory result (d = 0.06).[9]
  • Deliberate practice explained 26% of the variance in performance for games, 21% for music, 18% for sports, 4% for education, and less than 1% for professions.[10]

Sources

  1. Mental disorders (fact sheet)
    World Health Organization, 2026-09-11most people with mental disorders do not have access to effective care
  2. Suicide (fact sheet)
    World Health Organization, 2026-08-28With timely, evidence-based and often low-cost interventions, suicides can be prevented.
  3. How are habits formed: Modelling habit formation in the real world
    European Journal of Social Psychology (Lally P, van Jaarsveld CHM, Potts HWW, Wardle J), 2010ranged from 18 to 254 days
  4. Does monitoring goal progress promote goal attainment? A meta-analysis of the experimental evidence
    Psychological Bulletin (Harkin B et al), 2016monitoring goal progress is an effective self-regulation strategy
  5. The effectiveness of multi-component goal setting interventions for changing physical activity behaviour: a systematic review and meta-analysis
    Health Psychology Review (McEwan D et al), 2016multi-component goal setting interventions represent an effective method of fostering PA
  6. Is guided self-help as effective as face-to-face psychotherapy for depression and anxiety disorders? A systematic review and meta-analysis of comparative outcome studies
    Psychological Medicine (Cuijpers P et al), 2010guided self-help and face-to-face treatments can have comparable effects
  7. Internet-Based Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Depression: A Systematic Review and Individual Patient Data Network Meta-analysis
    JAMA Psychiatry (Karyotaki E et al), 2021Guided iCBT was associated with more effectiveness than unguided iCBT
  8. Estimating the reproducibility of psychological science
    Science (Open Science Collaboration), 2015Replication effects were half the magnitude of original effects
  9. A Multisite Preregistered Paradigmatic Test of the Ego-Depletion Effect
    Psychological Science (Vohs KD et al), 2021preregistered analyses did not find evidence for a depletion effect
  10. Deliberate practice and performance in music, games, sports, education, and professions: a meta-analysis
    Psychological Science (Macnamara BN, Hambrick DZ, Oswald FL), 2014deliberate practice is important, but not as important as has been argued

General information, not professional or medical advice. Found a mistake? Write to [email protected].