Depression Treatment Efficiency Can Be Tested Online

Scientists at the Rhode Island Hospital report in a new paper that the Internet provides all the capabilities needed for doctors to assess the effectiveness of a prescribed depression treatment, without actually having to see the patient.

In other words, the Internet version of the depression scale is equivalent to the paper version. This brings good news to people living in remote areas, who find it difficult to travel to larger cities.

“With the growing interest in developing electronic medical records, together with the increased pressure to adopt measurement-based care in clinical practice, the time is right to develop a Web-based system to monitor depression in clinical practice,” Mark Zimmerman, MD, explains.

“Web-based administration of outcome assessments offers several potential advantages over paper-and-pencil assessments. They are convenient for patients, there is a reduced cost associated with them, they can be scored automatically and data can easily be aggregated,” he concludes, quoted by PsychCentral.