Can computer-guided cognitive behavioral therapy improve depression treatment?

In the United States, depression is the top cause of disability, but only 21% of patients diagnosed with major depression get treatment that meets the guidelines of the American Psychiatric Association. Of people seeking depression treatment, those who’d like to be treated with live psychotherapy outnumber those who’d like to be treated with medication three to one, but those who want live therapy often don’t receive it. Access to psychotherapy is limited by the number of professionals in one’s region, cost, and logistics — not to mention stigma. And when people do get therapy, therapists may not provide care that is evidence-based. One way to get high-quality psychotherapy to people who need it is to automate and computerize the treatment process and deliver it through websites and apps. This could potentially offer guidelines-based treatment to anyone, anywhere, anytime, at a modest cost. Stand-alone computerized cognitive behavioral therapy (CCBT) has been found to be effective for the treatment of depression, and is already available from a few entities. But it’s still not known how much, if at all, CCBT would improve treatment of depression in primary care, so a group of researchers in the United Kingdom recently tested the advantages of adding CCBT to standard treatment. They randomly assigned 691 people with depression into three different groups. One group received standard care, and the others received standard care plus one of two online CCBT...
Source: New Harvard Health Information - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Health Anxiety and Depression Stress Behavioral Health cognitive behavioral therapy CBT CCBT Source Type: news