A randomized trial in Europe showed the effectiveness of a new 10-module Internet-based course of therapy for depression. The text-based modules included interactive questionnaires and exercises, focusing on several accepted forms of cognitive behavior therapy.
The study compared patients who began the course immediately with those who had to wait 9 weeks to start the program. Six months after the end of the program, the immediate-treatment group showed significantly greater improvements on depression treatment scales, and 80% said they felt better.
Another new study, this one from Australia, found that adherence rates in Internet-based interventions are similar to those in trials of other kinds of depression treatment.
Clinical Trials
Look in this category to find ongoing trials of Internet-based therapy for a wide variety of psychiatric conditions.
Psychiatric Times
Clinicians must remain an integral element of computer-assisted psychotherapy, writes Jesse H. Wright, MD, of the University of Louisville. The computer will prove very useful, he writes, but it’s merely a tool.
IN THE JOURNALS
What have other doctors been looking at?
Three-fourths of patients currently under treatment for depression would be excluded from phase III trials of antidepressants, according to a new study in the American Journal of Psychiatry—raising troubling questions about the relevance of the trial results.
Treatment with SSRIs during pregnancy is no more hazardous than untreated depression, according to a new study found with the search term “pregnancy and drugs.”
NOTEWORTHY SEARCH of the week
Lessons from a genuine search result
One of your colleagues wrote in to recommend this recent article about narcissistic personality disorder.
RESULT: Narcissists Come Into Focus As Data Clarify Disorder
Psychiatric News
TIP: The article this person sent feedback about is a journalist’s summary of a study about to be reported in the American Journal of Psychiatry.
You can easily find the journal article in question, by clicking on the article category Research/Reviews, where it appears as the first result.
