Treatment of Panic Disorder: Live Therapy vs. Self-Help via Internet.

A randomized trial was conducted comparing 10 individual weekly sessions of cognitive behaviour therapy for Panic Disorder with or without agoraphobia (PD) with a 10-module self-help program on the Internet. After confirming the PD-diagnosis with an in-person structured clinical interview (SCID) 49 participants were randomized. Overall, the results suggest that Internet-administered self-help plus minimal therapist contact via e-mail is equally effective as traditional individual cognitive behaviour therapy (80% vs 67% reached high-end-state functioning; composite within-group effect size was Cohen’s d= 0.78 vs 0.99). One year follow up confirmed the results (92% vs 88% reached high-end-state functioning; Cohen’s d= 0.80 vs 0.93). The results from this study generally provide evidence to support the continued use and development of Internet-distributed self-help programs.