Sander LB, Paganini S, Terhorst Y, et al. - In patients with persistent back pain, researchers sought to assess the efficacy of a web-based self-help intervention to lower the incidence of a major depressive episode in this randomized clinical trial. In total, 295 participants (mean [SD] age, 52.8 [7.7] years; 184 women [62.4%]) were selected and randomly allocated to either the intervention group (n = 149) or control group (n = 146). According to findings, participants who received a guided, web-based, self-help intervention in addition to treatment as usual exhibited a significant decline in the incidence of major depressive episodes over a 12-month period vs those who only received treatment as usual. This result indicates that, in patients with persistent back pain, a proactive, web-based self-help intervention in routine healthcare is an appropriate, low-threshold therapy that can lower the incidence of major depressive episodes.