The efficacy of a culturally adapted tailored internet-based cognitive behavior therapy for young arabic refugee and migrant adults with common mental health problems: a randomized controlled trial

• Despite the high prevalence of mental disorders, refugees underutilize mental health services. • Cultural adaptation of interventions is suggested as a way to narrow this treatment gap. • The Raha Arabic program was efficient in reducing symptoms of depression, anxiety, insomnia, and PTSD. • The Raha Arabic program was also efficient in improving resilience and well-being. • Treatment effects were sustained at the 6-month follow-up. Despite an elevated risk for developing mental health problems, evidence-based treatment options for this population remain scarce. The current study aimed to examine the efficacy of a culturally adapted internet-based cognitive behavioral therapy (iCBT) program for youth and young adults with mild to moderate mental health problems. Raha is a culturally adapted, guided, and tailored iCBT program for mild to moderate mental health problems. One hundred twenty-five Arabic-speaking refugee youth and young adults aged 15–29 years were randomly allocated to either a 10-week CA-iCBT condition or a wait-list control condition. The Hopkins Symptom Checklist (HSCL-25) served as the primary outcome measure and was assessed at pre-treatment, 4-week follow-up, post-treatment, and at 6-months post-treatment. Treatment effects were evaluated using a latent growth model. In the intention-to-treat analysis, anxiety and depressive symptoms on the HSCL-25 were significantly reduced in the treatment group compared with the wait-list control group, with a between-group effect size at post-treatment of Cohen’s d = 1.43 [0.97,1.89]. Treatment effects were sustained at the 6-month follow-up. Significant moderate-to-large effects were also observed across most secondary outcome measures. The findings of this study indicate that CA-iCBT is effective in reducing symptoms of common mental health problems in a population that generally underutilizes traditional mental health services.