Online therapy can treat depression: Study

STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN: The online Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT) is as effective in treating panic disorder and depression as the traditional group-based method, a new study has found.

"Internet-based CBT is also more cost-effective than group therapy," said Jan Bergstrom, a researcher with the Center for Psychiatry Research at the Swedish medical university Karolinska Institute (KI).

"The results therefore support the introduction of internet treatment into regular psychiatry, which is also what the National Board of Health and Welfare recommends in its new guidelines for the treatment of depression and anxiety," Bergstrom said.

It is estimated that depression affects some 15 per cent and panic disorder 4 per cent of all people during their lifetime.

Depression can include symptoms such as low mood, lack of joy, guilt, lethargy, concentration difficulties, insomnia and a low zest for life, the research said.

In the internet-based CBT, the patient undergoes an online self-help counselling programme and can contact a therapist via email.

The new research is based on a random clinical trial of 104 patients with panic disorder and comparison of the effectiveness of Internet-based CBT and group CBT within a regular healthcare service, Xinhua reported.

Both treatments worked very well and there was no significant difference between them, either immediately after treatment or at a six-month follow-up, the research said.

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