Enhancing Inpatient Psychotherapeutic Treatment With Online Self-help : Acceptance and Efficacy

Enhancing Inpatient Psychotherapeutic Treatment With Online Self Help in a Randomised Controlled Trial: Acceptance and Efficacy

The purpose of this study is to determine the acceptance and efficacy of the online self-help program deprexis® for depressed patients in reducing the clinical symptoms of their depression. The patients of the experimental group use deprexis® for 90 days, the patients of the placebo group receive weekly online information about depression for 90 days as well. Both groups receive their treatment in addition to their regular inpatient psychosomatic treatment and as an aftercare intervention.The investigators hypothesize that the online self-help group achieves a greater reduction of depression compared to the control group.

Inclusion Criteria:

• Inpatient treatment
• Private internet access
• Informed consent
• Age between 18 and 65 years
• Knowledge of the German language
• Score in the BDI-II > 13 and clinical diagnosis of a depression (ICD-10: F32.x, F33.x, F34.1, F43.2) verified by the inpatient therapist

Exclusion Criteria:

• Psychosis
• Current alcohol or drug dependency
• Borderline, antisocial, schizoid or schizotypal personality disorder
• Anorexia nervosa
• Life time diagnosis of a schizophrenia, schizoaffective , bipolar oder organic psychic disorder