eWeek is running an article entitled Delivering Psychiatric Care Through Broadband that describes the use of two Australian Web sites to monitor and treat depression. Our Depression Center's program, called Michigan Depression Outreach and Collaborative Care (M-DOCC), has just started using a Web interface to capture patient self-reports, but the Aussies have already gone us one better. They are using their Web presence to teach and reinforce evidence-based treatment using an online version of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), and the results sound very promising. Not bad for people who have to stand upside down all their lives!
A quote to convince you to take a look yourself:
...The ANU study found that users of both Web sites reported improvements 12 months after first contact but that BluePages was particularly effective for those reporting higher levels of depression.
Helen Christensen, one of the researchers leading the study, said her team collected data on what patients did after viewing the BluePages site. "They were less likely to use actions that did not have an evidence base," Christensen said. "So control participants were likely to use music or take alcohol, while BluePages participants were less likely to do so." ...
Evidence-based behavior!
If you want to bypass eWeek and go directly to the source, visit the cognitive behavioral therapy Web site, called MoodGym, and the educational Web site, called BluePages. Both are the products of ANU in Canberra. Two innovative thumbs up!
Comments