Guided online treatment in routine mental health care: an observational study on uptake, drop-out and effects

We studied all 104 consecutive patients aged 18–65？years with elevated symptoms of depression, anxiety and/or burnout who registered at the center during the first six months after implementation. They were offered a five week guided online treatment. At baseline, five weeks and twelve weeks we measured depressive (BDI-II), anxiety (HADS-A) and burnout symptoms (MBI).A total of 55 patients (53%) agreed to start with the online treatment. Patients who accepted the online treatment were more often female, younger and lower educated than those who refused. There were no baseline differences in clinical symptoms between the groups. There were large between group effect sizes after five weeks for online treatment for depression (d？=？0.94) and anxiety (d？=？1.07), but not for burnout (d？=？？.07). At twelve weeks, when both groups had started regular face-to-face treatments, we no longer found significant differences between the groups, except for anxiety (d？=？0.69).The results of this study show that the majority of patients prefer online guided online treatment instead of waiting for face-to-face treatment. Furthermore, online PST increases speed of recovery and can therefore be offered as a first step of treatment in mental healthcare.Depression and anxiety disorders are common mental disorders with a lifetime prevalence of 20% for depression, and 16% for anxiety disorders [1]. This results in loss of quality of life and substantial costs for the individual as well as for the society [2,3]. Various effective face-to-face treatments are available [4]. However, due to economic reasons there is a growing demand for shorter and less expensive treatments. Use of guided self-help treatments have been frequently suggested as one of the solutions. Self-help is defined as “a psychological treatment in which the patient takes home a standardized psychological treatment protocol and works through it independently” [5]. Guided self-help aims at helping patients to understand treatmen