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Abstract
Context: Childhood depression is associated with high short-term and long-term morbidity. Cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT) for depression has been supported as an effective treatment in the traditional clinic setting. But many families face barriers to depression treatment, including distance to providers, provider shortages, stigma, and other challenges. Telemedicine or interactive televideo offers an innovative way to provide therapy at a distance. The family and therapist see and hear each other in real-time using videoconference.
Objective: This pilot project evaluated the same cognitive-behavioural therapy treatment for childhood depression in two different settings — face-to-face (F2F) or over interactive televideo (ITV).
Participants: Twenty-eight children with depression and their caregivers completed an eight-session, empirically supported CBT course for parent and child.
Results: All parent and child CBT skills were implemented successfully over telemedicine. An 82% remission from depression was observed immediately post-treatment and this rate did not significantly differ across groups (χ2 (n=28) = 2.19, NS).
Conclusion: In this feasibility study, all therapy elements were successfully implemented in the telemedicine context. Compared with the same protocol implemented face-to-face, cognitive behavioural therapy delivered over interactive televideo led to a similar rate of remission from depression. This supports continued research on telemedicine to help bridge the gap between high need in mental health care and low access, particularly for disorders such as childhood depression.