14 DAY TRIAL // According to an Australian researcher, online therapy sessions against depression are just as effective in combating the disorder and its symptoms as face-to-face meetings between doctors and patients. The find may allow for the creation of new treatment options, which could potentially reach those who are too scared, or simply don't want to meet with someone else in the flesh. Additionally, the expert said, this type of therapy only required about two hours of clinician contact time, as opposed to the 12 to 15 hours these treatments often imply.
University of New South Wales psychiatrist Gavin Andrews, also the lead author of a new study detailing the finds and published in the latest edition of the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry, learned that most of those suffering from anxiety or depression disorder simply do not get all the attention they need from professionals. In many cases, they don't get treatment at all, and so their conditions deteriorate, ABC News reports. “Medications work but they're a weak treatment. Cognitive therapy can be a strong treatment,” Andrews explained.
Moreover, he added, for most people it may simply be too expensive and too troublesome to see a specialist two or three times per week, after driving from work, and while very tired. “Internet treatments can be done at home and are much cheaper,” the expert said. His research focused on about 45 patients suffering from depression, in the disease's mild or moderate symptom strength. They were subjected to the same form of treatment online that they would have received from a face-to-face discussion with a psychiatrist.
After the treatment, almost a third of all participants could no longer be diagnosed with depression, an achievement that is comparable to that obtained from using conventional therapies. The course consisted of six lessons, a moderated online forum for the participants, as well as weekly email exchanges with a trained clinician. “The treatment forced [the participants] to think and rely on themselves, because they had to post their progress to the web,” Andrews said of the work.