Establishing the effectiveness of computerised cognitive behavioural therapy for secondary/tertiary mental health care service users with and without physical co-morbidities

Abstract

Given the intricate link between the soma and the psyche, this study sought to identify whether the presence of physical co-morbidities among sufferers of depression altered the impact of computerised cognitive behavioural therapy (CCBT). Five-hundred-and-ninety service users used Beating the Blues (BtB) - an established CCBT programme - in an NHS specialist CBT unit. A control group, a standard intervention group, and a physical co-morbidity intervention group were compared on pre- and post-Beck Depression Inventory II (BDI-II) scores. Statistically significant differences on the BDI-II were found between the control group and each of the intervention groups, but not between the intervention groups themselves. A quarter of BtB completers in each intervention group achieved reliable and clinically significant change and were said to be ‘recovered.’ A further 23.8 per cent of the standard intervention group and 26.8 per cent of the physical co-morbidity group showed reliable improvement. These findings provide compelling evidence that CCBT may be of value to service users presenting with a variety of physical co-morbidities and depression at all levels of mental health care.