Older adults experience symptoms of depression, leading to suffering and increased morbidity and mortality. Although we have effective depression therapies, physical distancing and other public health measures have severely limited access to in-person interventions.

To describe the efficacy of virtual interventions for reducing symptoms of depression in community-dwelling older adults.

Systematic review.

We searched MEDLINE, EMBASE, Cochrane Libraries, PsycINFO, and gray literature from inception to July 5, 2021.

We included randomized trials (RCTs) comparing the efficacy of virtual interventions to any other virtual intervention or usual care in community-dwelling adults ≥60 years old experiencing symptoms of depression or depression as an outcome.

The primary outcome was change in symptoms of depression measured by any depression scale.

We screened 12,290 abstracts and 830 full text papers. We included 15 RCTs (3100 participants). Five RCTs examined persons with depression symptoms at baseline and ten examined depression as an outcome only. Included studies demonstrated feasibility of interventions such as internet or telephone cognitive behavioral therapy with some papers showing statistically significant improvement in depressive symptoms.

There is a paucity of studies examining virtual interventions in older adults with depression. Given difficulty in accessing in-person therapies in a pandemic and poor access for people living in rural and remote regions, there is an urgent need to explore efficacy, effectiveness, and implementation of virtual therapies.

老年人会出现抑郁症状，导致痛苦并增加发病率和死亡率。尽管我们有有效的抑郁症疗法，但身体距离和其他公共卫生措施严重限制了面对面干预的机会。

描述虚拟干预对减轻社区老年人抑郁症状的疗效。

系统审查。

我们检索了 MEDLINE、EMBASE、Cochrane Libraries、PsycINFO 和灰色文献，从开始到 2021 年 7 月 5 日。

我们纳入了随机试验 (RCT)，比较虚拟干预与任何其他虚拟干预或常规护理对出现抑郁症状或抑郁症的社区居住成年人的疗效。

主要结果是通过任何抑郁量表测量的抑郁症状的变化。

我们筛选了 12,290 篇摘要和 830 篇全文论文。我们纳入了 15 项随机对照试验（3100 名参与者）。五项随机对照试验检查了基线时有抑郁症状的人，十项随机对照试验仅将抑郁症作为一种结果进行检查。纳入的研究证明了互联网或电话认知行为疗法等干预措施的可行性，一些论文显示抑郁症状在统计学上有显着改善。

缺乏对患有抑郁症的老年人进行虚拟干预的研究。鉴于在大流行期间难以获得面对面的治疗，以及居住在农村和偏远地区的人们难以获得，迫切需要探索虚拟疗法的功效、有效性和实施。