ABSTRACT
This self-help program gave individually tailored and text-based CBT selfhelp over six sessions. It guided cognitive restructuring and behavioural activation, tested the patient's understanding and gave feedback, suggested homework before the next session, and took clinical ratings. In a RCT (Table 5.1), 36 well-educated patients who had mild to moderate depression (RDC, mostly repeated major depressive disorder) were randomized to use the program at a PC in a clinic or have face-to-face (ftf ) CBT or go on a waitlist (WL). A therapist phoned WL subjects during weeks 2±6 to assess depression and suicide risk. Program users could seek help from a therapist who was not in the room. Questions were mostly about computer procedures and contact was kept to a minimum. There were no dropouts. After treatment and two-month follow-up both treatment groups improved substantially and similarly, and signi®cantly more than the waitlist. The value of CP for research was indicated by the RCT's ®nding that cognitive change accompanied but did not necessarily precede symptom improvement.
