TABLE 1.

Summary of the analyzed articles.

First author and year of publication	Type of treatment	Treated pathology	Study design	Participants	Outcome
Morris et al. (1974)	Video peer modeling	Snake phobia	Quantitative	n = 145 high school students divided into an experimental group (n = 66) and control group (n = 79).	Positive: The experimental group, compared to the control group, reported lower level of anxiety and avoidance of snakes, as well as a decrease in erroneous beliefs on the subject.
Muzekari (1976)	Video peer modeling	Schizophrenia	Quantitative	n = 45 chronic schizophrenic patients, divided into three groups: Experimental group A (Good model; n = 15), Experimental group B (Poor model; n = 15), Control group (No model; n = 15).	Positive: The experimental group that saw positive peer models improved over the controls that saw poor models or no models.
Lee et al. (1983)	Video treatment	Agoraphobia	Quantitative (Randomized control trial)	n = 32 Agoraphobic patients were randomly divided into three experimental groups and a control group (n = 8 for each group).	Positive: The “faded” group showed significant decreased phobic behavior than the controls and the supraliminal group. The improvement was maintained after 12 weeks.
Charlop and Milstein (1989)	Video modeling	Autism spectrum disorder (ASD)	Quantitative (Multiple baseline design)	n = 3 children with ASD, no control group.	Positive: Children learned new conversational skills from videos and generalized them to other situations as well. They kept the skills even 15 months apart.
Turley and Derdeyn (1990)	Classical cinematherapy	Violent behavior	Quantitative (Single case description)	n = 1 boy	Positive: Discussion with the therapist about the thoughts, concerns, and motives of the characters in the horror films allowed the boy access to his preconscious conflicts.
Gelkopf et al. (1993)	Video treatment	Schizophrenia	Quantitative	n = 34 patients with Schizophrenia were divided into an experimental group (Humorous movie, n = 17) and a control group (Other movies, n = 17)	Unclear: No significant improvement was reported by the two groups of patients. Nevertheless, the psychiatric staff reported a significant reduction in negative emotional states in the patient and an improvement in the degree of perceived staff support. Results may be due to an incidental positive effect on staff emotional state.
Heston and Kottman (1997)	Classical cinematherapy	Depression	Qualitative	n = 2 patients with depression. No control group.	Positive: Patients gained new insights about their condition and improved in therapy.
Thiemann and Goldstein (2001)	Video feedback	Autism spectrum disorder (ASD)	Quantitative (Multiple baseline design)	n = 15 children divided in ASD group (n = 5) and Neurotypical group (n = 10).	Positive: Children improved their conversation skills and generalized them to other contexts.
Bierman et al. (2003)	Classical cinematherapy	Different disorders concerning mood and behavior	Qualitative	n = 15 adolescent girls with different diagnoses. No control group.	Positive: The girls were able to relate to the films and successfully discuss them, improving their therapeutical process.
Gelkopf et al. (2006)	Video treatment	Schizophrenia	Quantitative (Comparative study)	n = 29 patients with Schizophrenia divided into one experimental group (n = 15) and a control group (n = 14).	Positive: Reduction of negative symptomatology, decrease in negative emotions and improvement in social skills.
Kimata (2007)	Video treatment	Atopic dermatitis and Night awakenings	Quantitative	n = 80 divided into n = 40 children with Atopic dermatitis and Night awakenings and n = 40 healthy children.	Positive: Humorous films decreased nocturnal awakenings and ghrelin levels in the saliva of children with dermatitis, while no significant effect is recorded for the healthy ones.
Reeve et al. (2007)	Video modeling	Autism spectrum disorder (ASD)	Quantitative (Multiple baselines across participant design)	n = 4 children with ASD. No control group.	Positive: Children learnt to address correct responses for helping behaviors and to generalize responses to other situations. They maintained the new skills after a 60 days follow-up.
Scattone (2008)	Video modeling	Asperger syndrome	Quantitative (Multiple baseline design, case study)	n = 1 adolescent with Asperger. No control group.	Positive: Improvement in 2 of the 3 target skills, as well as a generalization of the same skills
Kimata (2008)	Video treatment	Atopic dermatitis and Erectile disfunction	Quantitative (Randomized controlled trial)	n = 36 men with atopic dermatitis suffering from erectile dysfunction divided into one group (n = 18 men watching humorous films first), another group (n = 18 men watching control films first)	Positive: When participants were exposed to humorous films, erectile dysfunctions diminished, testosterone increased, and estradiol levels decreased, while control films failed to obtain the same outcome.
Coughlin et al. (2009)	Video modeling	Behavioral problems	Quantitative (Controlled clinical trial)	n = 74 parents of children with behavioral problems divided into Enhanced video-based treatment group (n = 42); Treatment as usual (TAU) comparison group (n = 32).	Positive: Both immediately after the end of treatment and 5 months after treatment, the Parents Plus Children’s Programme (PPCP) group decreased conduct problems and problems with peers (concerning children), then decreased parental distress and increased parental self-esteem. Parents’ ability to define problems and goals has increased. Treatment is most effective for children who only have behavioral problems. The positive changes were maintained to a 5-months follow-up.
Golan et al. (2010)	Video treatment	Autism spectrum disorder (ASD)	Quantitative (Comparative study)	n = 56 children divided into an experimental group (n = 20 children with ASD administered with the video-based intervention), ASD control group (n = 18 children with ASD without video intervention), Normally developing children group (n = 18 neurotypical children)	Positive: Experimental subjects significantly improve their performance, reaching a performance comparable to both control groups.
Marsick (2010)	Classical cinematherapy	Parental divorce	Qualitative (Collective case study)	n = 3 children whose parents were divorcing. No control group.	Positive: The children were able to reflect better on the situation and increased their awareness of the situation.
Lim (2010)	Video treatment	Autism spectrum disorders (ASD)	Quantitative (Randomized controlled trial)	n = 50 children with ASD divided into a music condition group (n = 18), Speech condition group (n = 18), and Control group (n = 14)	Positive: Children in both the music and speech groups improved significantly in their speech, those with low functioning showed greater improvement after music training.
Marx et al. (2010)	Video treatment	Dementia	Quantitative	n = 56 patients with dementia. No control group	No effect: Patients can be positively engaged with dog-related stimuli, particularly with real dogs. No significant differences were found in engagement duration among our dog-related stimuli.
Corbett et al. (2011)	Video peer modeling	Autism spectrum disorder (ASD)	Quantitative (Pre-test-post-test design)	n = 8 children with ASD. No control group.	Positive: ASD participants showed an improvement in the Theory of Mind and face recognition.
Gramaglia et al. (2011)	Classical cinematherapy	Anorexia Nervosa	Qualitative (Single-case study)	n = 1 woman with binge-purging anorexia nervosa	Positive: The treatment increased the patient’s awareness of her pathological condition and allowing a better tolerance of psychotherapy treatment, with positive repercussions on the patient’s daily life
Perlick et al. (2011)	Video peer modeling	Schizophrenia	Quantitative (Randomized controlled trial)	n = 122 caregivers of patients with schizophrenia divided into a Peer-led intervention group (n = 59), and a Clinical-led intervention group (n = 63).	Positive: Caregivers receiving peer-led video-based intervention experienced marked improvement in self-stigma and secrecy.
Rayner (2011)	Video prompting	Autism spectrum disorder (ASD)	Quantitative (Case reports)	n = 3 children with ASD who attend to both video prompting and backword chaining technique.	Unclear: Although the video prompting interventions increased the number of steps in the shoelace tying task completed by each participant, the backward chaining procedure was more effective, enabling one participant to reach mastery and a second participant to approach mastery.
Wilkes et al. (2011)	Video self-modeling	Attention deficit and Hyperactivity disorder	Quantitative	n = 28 children divided into an attention deficit and Hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) group (n = 14), and a Typical developing children group (n = 14).	Positive: Both children with ADHD and peers have improved their social play skills.
Ballard (2012)	Classical cinematherapy	Relationship problems	Qualitative (Case study)	A couple with relationship problems. No control group	Positive: The film helped participants become aware of the nature of their problems and speak positively about them.
Olatunji et al. (2012)	Video treatment	Blood-injection-injury phobia	Quantitative (Randomized controlled trial)	n = 44 subjects with blood-injection-injury phobia divided into an experimental condition group (n = 22 exposed to “disgusting” condition), and a Neutral condition group (n = 22 exposed to neutral videos).	Positive: The subjects who viewed the “disgust-condition” videos felt more disgust than those who saw the neutral videos. All the participants exposed to the videos with sampling images improved at the end of the treatment.
Savorani et al. (2013)	Video treatment	Dementia	Quantitative	n = 20 patients with dementia divided into an experimental group (n = 10 patients undergoing video-treatment), and a Control group (n = 10 patients with usual treatment).	Positive: There was a decrease in NPI scores and the distress levels of attendants and relatives.
Isong et al. (2014)	Video peer modeling and video treatment	Autism spectrum disorder (ASD)	Quantitative (Randomized controlled trial)	n = 69 children with ASD and dental fear divided into a video peer modeling only group (n = 17), Video goggles only group (n = 15), Video goggles plus video peer modeling only group (n = 18), and a Control group (N = 19).	Positive: The video goggles group and the peer modeling group plus video goggles have improved follow-up visits (4–6 months).
Jones et al. (2014)	Video modeling	Autism spectrum disorder (ASD)	Quantitative (Concurrent multiple baseline design)	n = 4 children with ASD.	Positive: Results suggested that certain irrelevant stimuli (adult vs. peer recipient) were more likely to exert stimulus control over responding than others (setting, materials) and that video viewing was an efficient way to promote generalization to peers.
Decker and Buggey (2014)	Video self-modeling vs. video peer modeling	Learning disabilities	Quantitative (Multiple baselines across participant design)	n = 9 children with learning disabilities divided into a video peer modeling group (n = 3), a Self-modeling group (n = 3), and a Control group (n = 3).	Positive: Both video self-modeling and video peer modeling make the children improve reading fluency. Positive effects were maintained at follow-up (6 weeks for the first group, 4 for the second and 2 for the third).
Macpherson et al. (2015)	Video modeling	Autism spectrum disorder (ASD)	Quantitative (Multiple baselines across participant design)	n = 5 Children with ASD. No control group.	Positive: Subjects increased the use of compliments and expanded the use of responses. These behaviors have also been generalized to other situations.
von Maffei et al. (2015)	Video modeling	Schizophrenia	Quantitative (Quasi-experimental pre-post design)	n = 113 patients with schizophrenia. No control group.	Positive: Subjects increase their knowledge of disease, insight, and improve for quality of life. The improvements could still be observed after a year.
Copple et al. (2015)	Video modeling	Autism spectrum disorder (ASD)	Quantitative (Single-subject multiple baseline design)	n = 3 Children with ASD or Autism symptoms. No control group.	Positive: All three participants demonstrated the ability to request preferred objects following the intervention and generalize the newly acquired behavior across stimuli and people.
Brown et al. (2016)	Video peer modeling	Smoking	Quantitative (Randomized controlled trial)	n = 3,019 smokers divided into no-intervention control group (n = 1,016), Informative intervention group (n = 1,004), and an experimental treatment group (n = 999).	No effect: There was no difference between the subjects undergoing the experimental treatment, the informative treatment, and those who did not receive any treatment.
Eğeci and Gençöz (2017)	Classical cinematherapy	Relationship problems	Qualitative (Descriptive study)	n = 6 women with relationship problems. No control group.	Positive: the viewing step itself did not promote change; instead, the discussion phase induced new insights and facilitated the generalization of these gains into individuals’ problem areas.
Walsh et al. (2018)	Video modeling	Autism spectrum disorder (ASD)	Quantitative (Multiple-probe design)	n = 7 young adults with ASD. No control group	Positive: Results showed significant increases in target social skills and a significant decrease in problem behaviors following the intervention. Evidence of maintenance and generalization was also demonstrated up to the 3-month follow-up.
Yan et al. (2018)	Video treatment	Autism spectrum disorder (ASD)	Quantitative	n = 21 children divided into an ASD group (n = 14 children with ASD), and a Control group (n = 7 typically developing children).	Positive: The intervention improved ASD children’s emotion recognition compared to their pre-intervention scores.
Dueñas et al. (2019)	Video Joint modeling	Autism spectrum disorder (ASD)	Quantitative (Multiple Probe Cross participant design)	n = 6 children divided into a patient group (n = 3 children with ASD), and a control group (n = 3 typically developing children).	Positive: The participants improved unscripted verbalizations during pretend play with typically developing peers in an inclusive early childhood setting. Moreover, participants learned to use verbalizations even not included among those taught during the treatment, and these remained even in the absence of the video models.