An investigation in the current issue of P&P has addressed the preference of patients for the type of psychotherapy to be received. Delivery of psychological therapies via the Internet holds great promise: there are benefits of accessibility, reduced stigmatisation, as well as potential reductions in the cost of service provision.
A large and expanding evidence base suggests that these approaches are as effective as face-to-face therapy for many disorders.
In this study, the authors administered an anonymous 1-page survey to 55 consecutive patients attending their first appointment at the Nepean Anxiety Disorders Clinic in Penrith (Australia). The survey asked respondents to rate their preferences for 5 forms of therapy delivery: individual face-to-face therapy, group face-to-face therapy, bibliotherapy (where therapy is exclusively provided by means of books and reading materials that are posted to patients), online therapy without therapist contact and online therapy with weekly therapist phone contact.
The results of our survey suggest that patients overwhelmingly preferred individual face-to-face therapy to all other delivery options. Importantly, this does not appear to be a consequence of a lack of basic and affirmative information about the alternative therapy modalities, given that such information was provided by the survey. Results showed that online therapy with weekly therapist phone contact was preferred over face-to-face group therapy and bibliotherapy.
This suggests that appropriately resourced online therapy, where clinicians retain regular involvement with each patient, may be a favorable ‘next best’ option for clients when routine individual face-to-face therapy is not available.