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

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.

Re:Psychologists need to learn more than this

[Anonymous Coward]

Have to disagree with you there OMF. I thought the same things for half my life until in my 20s I started getting serious
depressions. I still get them, but by god I know enough about psychology, psychiatry and medication now. There is quackery
on all sides of mental health. You think anybody actually understands the mechanism of antidepressants? Only in a fuzzy
and ad hoc experimental way, the biochemistry is bewildering. Most doctors and even some specialists haven't a clue. What is
scary is the way they are often puppets of the drug companies pushing their latest "cures". The DSM guide is practically
a crock of shite, and all the pros know it is deep in their hearts, but it's the best tool they have and the only
picture of mental dysfunction available as a common reference. Most psychs get the diagnosis wrong for the first
few times, they are too pressured to jump to a conclusion, always get a second and third opinion. The only thing that actually
worked for me was one on one talk therapy, but in most juristictions it's too expensive or simply unavailable on national
health insurance programmes. Funny thing is I studied cognitive science for many years, but that was formal schemas, predicate
logic and Boltzmann machines which obviously had no bearing my own problems. It made interesting conversation with psychologists
though, to be able to correct them when they are getting too fuzzy and explain how neural networks actually function.
Upshot of all is that I still get depressed, less often and less severe, but I manage it, anticipate it and accept it better now.
The best pieces of wisdom I received are roughly as follows, so this might save some of you some money :) .....

1) Most the causes *are* deeply rooted in childhood formative experiences and you need to remember your life context
and reinterpret your emotions in that light. Until you do you have no idea what crazy buttons the world is pushing for you.
I think of them as hidden methods in my brain object that get called by backdoor sploits ;)

2) Intelligence works against you. How many blissfully thick people do you know who suffer? Remember that line from the wife of
John Nash in Beautiful Mind - you can't use your mind to fix your mind when the tool itself is broken. By sheer force of will you
can sometimes bootstrap yourself back, but external input is a vital part of an expedient recovery.

3) Depression is a sane reaction to an insane environment. The world is barking insane. It's full of other stupid, lazy, damaged
people (increasing the ones running the show). There is war, misery, death, pointless waste, arrogance, fear, greed... our modern
Western existence is practically designed to send smart people insane. All the things that offer security and continuity in
modern life, the church, the state, employment - those are all fucked, they are crumbling away as we speak.
Most people use two coping mechanisms, denial and distraction. If you can't engage in either of these two self comforting drugs
then you have only one option left, change your environment. Throw out your television. Stop reading the FUD stories on /. designed
to provoke insecurity and outrage. Build new friendships and visit new places etc.

4) Acceptance. Get used to the idea that you have a lifelong incurable disease. Understand how it affects your capabilities and
dreams and learn to recognise the signs of the highs and lows. Make hay while the sun shines high and prepare for the winters.

5) Talk to your partner, family and friends. Part of the disease is isolation and trying to fight it on your own. It takes many years
to work out that friends *don't know* you are depressed when you don't call for 4 months because you are up every night hacking away
because it's the only thing that stops you going mental. Tell them and explain your situation and needs. Most will stick by you
and the ones who won't were never your real friends anyway.

Re:The problem, as I see it..

[cerberusss]

Have you any idea how condescending you sound? There's a difference between feeling low and feeling depressed. And if you haven't been through the latter, then you wouldn't suggest to 'realize that life isn't a dance on roses'.

You can't imagine how it's like to drive on the highway with 90 mph and thinking "I might as well turn the steering wheel real quick and be done with it". For weeks on end. Every day.

So cut the "know-it-all" attitude and accept that there are thing you don't know a rat's ass about. Asshole.

Re:Where's the control group?

[Lurker2288]

Depression (at least in mild cases) is one of the few diseases where people taking placebo do get better, actually. And while the use of 'active comparators' in drug trials is becoming more common (mainly because it allows you to demonstrate better results, and thus demand better reimbursement from Medicare and HMOs, e.g.) using placebo is still very common. As long as the patient knows when they sign up that they might not be getting the study drug, it's perfectly ethical.

The exception would be in cases where effective treatment exists, and withholding it would be a death sentence. For example, you probably won't see many placebo-controlled trials of new HIV drugs. In these cases active comparator trials are the only way to fly.

Re:Annoying...

[Bambi Dee]

I've seen highly creative and active people fall into depression for no external reason whatsoever. Is it so inconceivable that it can be a serious illness, and that it's hard to fight that illness with the very organ afflicted by it?

Even if depression is purely reaction, a being-overwhelmed - once you're choking on insidiously persuasive infinite loops of "I'm filth, everyone can see it, I have no right to ask for help, I have no right to feel better", once self-injury sounds like a perfectly reasonable punishment for being yourself, once meeting your friends makes you cry with fear, once writing, painting, coding, loving, laughing all seem increasingly bizarre - how do you chill out with that shit screaming in your head?

Please excuse the angst and drama. I suppose it's exactly the kind of stuff people love to make fun of... but it's my description of depression. Not a "light" depression, maybe, but what kind of depression could ever be "light"?

Maybe you can chill out in that state and look forward to working on your projects or spending time with your kids or what have you. That's great... quite amazing, actually. And I suppose it does help having built up a sensible life - ideally before falling to pieces. But even then there's no guarantee you'll recognise it once push comes to shove. Well, I guess I shouldn't presume to speak for you.