Depressed? Net-based Treatments Can Help

Jung and the Restless writes "Researchers at an Australian university have found that regular visits to therapeutic and educational web sites can successfully treat depression. Researchers directed patients to The MoodGYM, a cognitive behavior therapy site, and BluePages, a depression education site. After 12 months, users of both web sites reported improvement, with the educational site working out better than the behavior therapy site. A psychotherapist who did not participate in the study says that the results aren't all that surprising. 'Cognitive behavioral strategies — sometimes in conjunction with medication — are the most effective means of treating depression,' and 'a person who is visiting an educational site like BluePages is taking the necessary steps with her own self-care. That's a key component of successful treatment for depression'"

Comments

Where's the control group?

[Ed Avis]

As the article points out, someone who visits any website at all is taking steps to deal with their depression and so you'd expect them to get better. Surely they needed a placebo website, with 'neutral' content, that could act as a control group. They get a little of that by comparing one website against another, but they haven't shown that either is a better choice than just browsing. They could even be a bit worse.

Psychologists need to learn more than this

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm one of those depressed people psychologists treat (I've been more than I can remember in the last twenty five years) and while cognitive behavioural therapy is one of the big tools in their arsenal, I'm afraid most of them consider CBT + Antidepressants to be the ONLY tool they'll use. It's done little to help me, yet when I see a psych, it's more laying on thick CBT with another round of antidepressants. My past experience with it is ignored, and they'll go so far as to say I'm clearly getting better despite evidence to the contrary.

Moving sideways for an analogy, it's like going into hospital with a stab wound and being given aspirin. When that doesn't work, more aspirin is given, and the doc insists it's better, despite nothing healing and the pain being just as bad. 18 months later, when the doc has done nothing more than to give more aspirin, I realise it's another bum move, and I try another doctor. The next doctor says he has just the right treatment... and whips out some aspirin.

Psych training is pretty damned poor in Australia.

Moo

[Chacham]

Alot of depression is actually lack of sleep. Seriously. If someone is depressed, and they go to sleep, they will usually be happy. I'd even venture to say that the vast majority of depression cases would be cured, if they went to sleep for eight hours a night. Though, real results are seen after a week or two (as the body gets used to the rythem).