Internet-mediated, protocol-driven treatment of psychological dysfunction.
An Internet system was developed for assessing psychopathology, for on-line, protocol-driven cognitive-behavioural psychological treatment and for measuring the effects of treatment. The system focused on the treatment of post-traumatic stress. The treatment comprised 10 writing sessions (45 min each) over five weeks. Participants were assessed on-line before treatment, after treatment and after six-week follow-up. After treatment the participants had improved significantly in terms of post-traumatic stress symptoms (P < 0.005) and general psychological functioning (P < 0.005), and this was sustained during the follow-up. Nineteen of the 20 participants were clinically recovered after treatment. Reduction in post-traumatic stress symptoms compared favourably to changes in control and experimental groups in trials of similar but face-to-face treatment.
Lange
A
A
Department of Clinical Psychology, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands. kp_lange@macmail.psy.uva.nl
van de Ven
J P
JP
Schrieken
B A
BA
Bredeweg
B
B
Emmelkamp
P M
PM
D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D020407:Internet; D008297:Male; D015397:Program Evaluation; D011613:Psychotherapy / Q000379:methods*; D019114:Remote Consultation / Q000379:methods* / Q000458:organization & administration; D013313:Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic / Q000628:therapy*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D016896:Treatment Outcome