More on the Lancet study of psychotherapy online, from Brainblogger.
Logging On for Psychotherapy | Brain Blogger:
A recent issue of The Lancet reports that real-time online cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is effective in treating patients with depression. The study evaluated nearly 300 patients from 55 general practice clinics across the United Kingdom who had a diagnosis of depression. The patients were randomly assigned to either receive online CBT in addition to their usual care from the general practitioner, or be placed on an 8-month waiting list for CBT while still receiving their usual care. At the 4-month follow-up, 38% of the CBT group had recovered from their depression, compared to only 24% in the control group. After 8 months, 42% of the patients receiving CBT had recovered, compared to 26% in the control group.
In the comments I wrote:
Good to see the research. While there may not be such easy to collate evidence for depth psychology and psychotherapy using the online therapeutic relationship as the main focus of the work, from my practice in this field it can be done. The use of imagination is enhanced while writing, hence often the book is better than the film.
