Disclosure of interest
I am a co-founder at the Canarmony Corp, which has developed an online psychotherapy platform named OPTT.
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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 23 March 2020
Psychotherapy is one of the most widely investigated and practiced forms of treatment used in the treatment of different mental health problems. However, there are some barriers in delivering this treatment, including long waiting lists, therapist shortage and lack of access to therapists in remote areas. Therefore, using alternative methods to overcome these barriers seems necessary.
The division of psychiatry at Queen's university provides different psychotherapy groups for individuals suffering from different kinds of mental health problem. We gave the participants the opportunity to choose online psychotherapy through an online clinic or the live group sessions. All the patients were assessed by different questionnaires for evaluation of the efficacy of the treatment. The online clinic was designed to facilitate the communication between patients and clinicians and the material was delivered in PowerPoint format through the online platform. All user activities were logged for security purposes.
Statistical analysis showed that this method of delivering psychotherapy significantly reduced patients’ symptoms and also decreased the number of people on the waiting list and increased the amount of compliance in patient's taking part in psychotherapy and number of people who were able to receive psychotherapy.
Despite the proven short and long-term efficacy of psychotherapy, there are some barriers in delivering this treatment. It is an unequivocal public health needs to overcome these barriers through alternative methods of therapy. With Internet use ever rising, developing an online clinic could be a new way in delivering different kinds of psychotherapy.
I am a co-founder at the Canarmony Corp, which has developed an online psychotherapy platform named OPTT.
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