For the treatment of residual depressive symptoms, online-based therapy has been regarded as an efficient option according to a team of researchers at the University of Toronto. The findings were released in the journal JAMA Psychiatry.
According to the study, Mindfulness-based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) through cyberspace could be effective for alleviating and even preventing depressive symptoms.
The online-based version of MBCT, known as Mindful Mood Balance (MMB), was constructed by researchers of the study and implemented in a randomized clinical trial of 460 adult participants with residual depressive symptoms in the U.S. The study was initiated between 2015 and 2018.
For researchers, the primary objective, based on the findings, was to “evaluate the effectiveness for treating residual depressive symptoms with MMB, a web-based application that delivers mindfulness-based cognitive therapy, plus usual depression care compared with usual depression care only.”
In the findings, researchers learned online-based therapy was associated with a significant reduction in affective symptoms, like depression and anxiety, compared to their counterparts.
“Those who received an online version of mindfulness-based cognitive therapy in addition to usual care had greater reductions in depressive and anxiety symptoms, higher rates of remission, and higher levels of quality of life compared with participants who received usual care only,” the results proclaim.
“The findings support the value of online mindfulness-based cognitive therapy as an adjunctive, scalable approach for the management of residual depressive symptoms.”
“Use of MMB plus UDC resulted in significant improvement in depression and functional outcomes compared with UDC only. The MMB web-based treatment may offer a scalable approach for the management of residual depressive symptoms,” the research team concluded.
