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E-therapy
Can a software program treat agoraphobia as well as a live
therapist?
Well, E-therapy for agoraphobia is now available. “Beating
the Blues” is an interactive software program that provides
cognitive-behavioral therapy for sufferers of anxiety and
depression. “FearFighter” is another form of cognitive
behavioral e-therapy for people with anxiety disorders and
phobias.
To give you a quick review before describing the software,
cognitive-behavioral therapy, or
CBT,
is the most effective treatment for agoraphobia according to
research. It is a combination of cognitive and behavioral
approaches to therapy.
Cognitive therapy focuses on identifying and correcting
irrational thought patterns. In behavior therapy, a person
with agoraphobia learns to face feared situations instead of
avoiding them through one of two types of exposure therapy.
The person can practice exposure to feared settings in small
steps (as in systematic desensitization) or all at once (as
in flooding).
Developed in the
UK,
Beating the Blues is designed to be a first-line treatment
option for anxiety and depression, similar to live therapy.
It is to be considered before medication. Right now it is
not available for sale online, it is only available through
health care professionals in the UK, US, Canada and
Australia.
Beating the Blues uses interactive modules, animations and
voice-overs to motivate and engage the user. A major feature
is a series of filmed case studies of fictional patients who
model the symptoms of anxiety and depression and help
demonstrate the treatment by cognitive behavioral therapy.
During the 8-session program, users identify specific
problems and realistic treatment goals. They work through
cognitive modules which focus on the identification and
challenge of automatic thoughts, thinking errors,
distractions, core beliefs, and attributional styles.
Interwoven with these cognitive elements are
problem-directed behavioral components where patients can
work on any two of activity scheduling, problem solving,
graded exposure, task breakdown, or sleep management
according to their specific problems. The final module looks
at action planning and relapse prevention.
FearFighter is available online, but only to users who are
registered with health professionals in the UK. It offers
cognitive-behavioral treatment for anxiety and panic
disorders, agoraphobia and other phobias,
obsessive-compulsive disorder, depression and post-traumatic
stress disorder.
If you have agoraphobia, then e-therapy might be as
effective (or more) than live therapy, or so a 2004 study
suggested.
This study demonstrated the effectiveness of computerized
cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT)
for treating anxiety and depression in a clinical setting.
For anxiety, computerized
CBT
was more effective than traditional
CBT
in more severe cases. The more severe the anxiety disorder,
the more effective computerized
CBT was in comparison with traditional
CBT. Computerized
CBT also led to greater satisfaction with treatment.
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