ETherapy Flashcards
Depression Symptoms
- Lowered mood or loss of interest or pleasure in daily activities
- Weight change or change in appetite
- Change in sleep (insomnia or hypersomnia)
- Fatigue or loss of energy
- Feelings of guilt or worthlessness
- Impaired concentration skills
- Suicidal thoughts
- (bereavement exclusion as grief might even be protective)
Anxiety Symptoms
- Excessive, uncontrollable, and often
irrational worry. - Moderate correlation with depression.
- Can interfere with daily functioning: fatigue,
fidgeting, breathlessness, difficulty
concentrating, irritability, restlessness. - Includes phobias, social anxiety, panic
attacks, generalized anxiety disorder,
separation anxiety
Stress Symptoms
- Long-term state of reacting to complex environmental demands.
- Physical symptoms can include: low energy, insomnia, lowered immune system (frequent colds), upset stomach and headaches
- Long-term stress leads to burnout: state of exhaustion, characterized by feelings of disillusionment and helplessness. Loss of interest and motivation, irritability, feeling overwhelmed and resentful.
Acute Stress Disorder Symptoms
- In response to a traumatic event.
- Reduced emotional responsiveness,
awareness of surrounding, recurrent
images, thoughts, flashbacks, reliving the
experience. - Avoidance of stimuli associated with
trauma.
Barriers to seeking help
- Access problems (e.g. living in rural area)
- Perceived stigma to seeking help (especially for older people) Lack of available psychologists
- Long delays and waitlist- Cost
How effective is self-help?
- The answer is: “We don’t know”.
- Unknown starter and situation. (who created this?) + (Before and after the self help).
- Less than 50% of people finish a self help program
- Unless psychologists engage with eTherapy themselves more, there could be some apps around that cause more damage than do good.
What is eTherapy?
- Psychological therapy that clients complete
under the supervision and guidance of a psychologist. - The level of support and guidance can be very minimal (via emails, SMS, or phone call).
- Compared to face-to-face therapy (45-60 min per week),
psychologist’s time is reduced to around 5-20 min per week.
Computerised CBT (CCBT)
- Cognitive-Behavior Therapy (CBT)is a popular and effective therapeutic approach for treating depression and anxiety.
- Its structured approach to therapy and exercises makes it very suitable for use as eTherapy.
- Only mild cases should use computerised CBT (CCBT)– urgent cases (e.g. suicide danger) need to receive urgent face-to-face help.
“Beating the Blues” (Self-help program)
The program typically follows this structure:
- 15min introductory video then eight 1-hour sessions to promote helpful thinking styles.
- Clients complete weekly homework, and regular progress reports are given to facilitator and client.
- Other programs include: MoodGYM, Colour Your Life, Managing Your Mood, Overcoming Depression.
“Sparx” - Fantasy Game
- For adolescents experiencing mild to moderate depression.
- Uses a 3-D fantasy gaming environment to deliver Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy.
- User interacts with a character who provides psychoeducation, assesses mood, sets real-life challenges (e.g. homework tasks).
- User chooses a character to restore balance in the world infested by GNATs (gloomy, negative, automatic thoughts)
- Uses problem solving, relaxation, identify negative thinking, cognitive restructuring etc
“Sparx” - Lessions
Level 1 = Finding Hope (Cave Province)
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“Sparx” - Lessions
Level 1 = Finding Hope (Cave Province)
>.Psychoeducation about depression (Gloomy Negative
Automatic Thoughts {GNAT}, Into Hope)
Level 2 = Being Active (Ice Province)
>. Activity scheduling and behavioural activation (Relaxation)
Level 3 = Dealing with Emotions (Volcano Province)
>. Interpersonal skills + dealing with strong emotions
Level 4 = Overcoming Problems (Mountain Province)
>. Problem solving skills
“Sparx” - Lessons: Part 2
Level 5 = Recognizing Unhelpful Thoughts (Swamp Province)
>. Cognitive restructuring (recognizing different GNAT)
Level 6 = Challenging Unhelpful Thoughts (Bridgeland Province)
>. Cognitive restructuring + Interpersonal skills
Level 7 = Bringing it all Together
>. Recap all of the skills + Mindfulness + Relapse prevention
“Serious Games”
- “…the use of digital gaming technology to
address a specific set of learning
objectives or behavioral goals” (Schuller et
al., 2013, p.48). - Apart from use with autism, it is not so
much used for serious psychological
problems, but more for psychoeducation. - Example is www.maseltov.eu to promote
integration and cultural diversity:
Is eTherapy working? Part 1
- Many reviews have confirmed that eTherapy is just as effective as “treatment as usual”, which means a lot of money can be saved by using eTherapy.
- However, there are some methodological difficulties when testing the effectiveness of eTherapy (e.g., what is an appropriate control group?).
