June 25, 2009 – Following psychotherapy based on the use of the Internet would be, for people with depression, as beneficial as sessions in the presence of a psychologist.
This is what a small study tends to show1 Australian study conducted among 45 people diagnosed with depression. For eight weeks, more than half of them participated in a remote psychotherapy program, via the Internet, and the rest did not receive any therapy (control group).
At the end of the trial, 41% of participants in the Internet group were deemed to have recovered, compared to 6% in the control group. This clinical efficacy is similar to that obtained during “face-to-face” sessions, according to the study authors.
Entitled Sadness, the program used during the study involved participants in performing certain homework: readings, questionnaires, task manuals to accomplish in relation to each person’s personal development, etc. They also had to take part in online discussion forums, run by a psychologist. In addition, everyone had to exchange regularly, by email, with a psychologist. If necessary, the latter was also accessible by telephone.
During this time, the evolution of the effect of Internet therapy was measured using questionnaires provided for this purpose.
In addition to the program’s positive effect on their symptoms, 81% of participants said they were satisfied and 94% rated the treatments as good. More than 70% of them judged that the relation maintained with the psychologist by Internet was of quality.
For therapists, the Internet psychotherapy program would have resulted in appreciable time savings, without altering the quality of the treatment received or the benefits felt by the participants. Using the Internet allows, for example, certain general information to be sent to more than one person at a time, which saves the therapist time.
“Insofar as our results are confirmed by other studies on a larger scale, one can think that the use of Internet in psychotherapy would make it possible to extend the services in mental health to a greater number of people”, conclude authors.
Martin LaSalle – PasseportSanté.net
1. Perini S, Titov N, Andrews G, Clinician-assisted Internet-based treatment is effective for depression: randomized controlled trial, Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry, June 2009, Vol. 43, no 6, 571-8.
2. The Sadness program is part of a large-scale study measuring the effectiveness of various internet-based mental health therapy programs. Therapists and patients in Australia can access these programs through www.climategp.tv [consulté le 25 juin 2009].
