PSYCHOnlineTHERAPIE

Project description

PSYCHOnlineTHERAPY investigates the integration of online interventions into routine psychotherapy for patients with depressive and anxiety disorders. With the aim of improving psychotherapeutic care, the project implements and evaluates a new form of treatment, so-called blended therapy, which is a combination of online-based treatment components and outpatient psychotherapy sessions. Blended therapy has the potential to improve psychotherapeutic care, as the combination of outpatient psychotherapy with online-based treatment components enables a more flexible way of delivering therapy. Other advantages are an improved transfer of therapy content into the everyday life of the patients and an increase in the capacities of psychotherapists.

Within the PSYCHOnlineTHERAPY project, blended psychotherapy will be evaluated in two variants and compared to standard routine care psychotherapy in a three-armed cluster-randomized controlled non-inferiority study. Psychotherapy sessions in all three study conditions comprise cognitive behavioral therapy with outpatient psychotherapists. The two variants of blended psychotherapy differ in the flexibility of the sequence and amount of psychotherapy sessions and online-based treatment components that patients additionally complete between therapy sessions. Therapists can assign the online-based treatment components individually according to the needs of their patients.

The scientific evaluation of the project includes both quantitative and qualitative assessments at multiple times of measurement. The two variants of blended psychotherapy are evaluated for their effectiveness, cost-effectiveness, acceptability, and feasibility.

Funding

Innovationsfonds des Gemeinsamen Bundesausschusses zu neuen Versorgungsformen.