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Online Therapy Effective in Treating Depression

by Gopalan on June 04, 2009 at 10:50 AM Mental Health News

Australian researchers say that Internet-based therapies could be as effective as face-to-face sessions in treating depression.�

Scientists with the University of New South Wales (UNSW) have shown that internet-based therapy programs are as effective as face-to-face therapies in combating the illness.

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Patients in a clinician-assisted internet-based treatment program experienced rates of recovery similar to those achieved by face-to-face therapy, a study at the University of New South Wales (UNSW) found.

Moreover, the program � dubbed the Sadness program � required an average of only 111 minutes of clinician email contact per person over an eight-week period, significantly less than other comparable clinician-based therapies.

A paper outlining the study appears this week in the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry.

�The results will come as a surprise to many people who believed internet-based programs wouldn�t work in treating depression,� said lead author of the study, Professor Gavin Andrews, from UNSW�s School of Psychiatry.

�We knew that the internet was successful at treating social phobias and other anxiety disorders but these conditions are, in many ways, low-hanging fruit.

�It was assumed that depression would be more difficult because of the lack of motivation usually associated with the illness,� he said.

�But that simply wasn�t the case.�

In the study, Professor Andrews and UNSW colleague Dr Nick Titov, based at St Vincent�s Hospital, randomly assigned 45 people who met diagnostic criteria for depression to the Sadness step program or to a waitlist control group.

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