U of Washington Study A Breakthrough In Depression Therapy

Researchers with the University of Washington have published a new study that may be a breakthrough for those seeking treatment options for depression.

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There Is More Than One Way To Engage In Therapy

Traditionally, therapy sessions were one on one session at a therapist's office.  Depending on the situation, in person group therapy became an alternative or addition to the one on one session.

As time marched on and technology was being seen as a useful addition for therapy options, teletherapy began to emerge as a convenient way for people to seek and receive treatment.  There are a few forks you can travel on the teletherapy path.  You can talk over the phone, via your computer screen, or message via text.  One of those paths is yielding better result than you might think.

UW Study Shows Text Therapy As Productive As Video

A study was done involving 850 people who received therapy via text or video through the commercial online mental health platform Talkspace.  The senior author of the study is retired professor in psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the University of Washington School of Medicine, Patricia A. Areán.  She had this to say about the results

We found that patients improved at similar rates, regardless of whether they were communicating with their therapist through messaging or live video calls.  This supports the use of text-based therapy as a viable, evidence-based way to treat the millions of Americans who experience depression every year.

One of the more interesting revelations was patients that used video-based therapy were to disengaged a little earlier in treatment, than those using message-based therapy.  One reason being, text therapy offers greater flexibility to talk with a therapist than video.

The study was a collaboration between the University of Washington School of Medicine and Talkspace with funding provided by the National Institute of Mental Health.  The researchers did manage a plea as they noted expanding insurance reimbursement for message-based therapy may make the treatment more accessible.  You can read the full study here.