At present, 121 million worldwide suffer from a treatment-requiring depression. Treatment recommendations include pharmacotherapeutic and psychotherapeutic procedures. However, lacking resources in psychotherapy complicate the process of implementation. Therefore, researchers are increasingly working on computer-based psychotherapy programmes. But will these programmes be accepted by patients - and if yes, how would they use them?

Obtaining information on how patients assess and wish to use online psychotherapy programmes, using the example of the web-based programme “Deprexis”. The programme can be used to bridge waiting times, for phase-prophylactic purposes and to accompany the therapy. Based on elements of CBT, CBASP, IPT and ACT, clinical and scientific experts have developed this evidence-based intervention and positively evaluated it in an RCT (Meyer, B., Berger, T., Caspar, F., et al., 2009).

In an online survey, the acceptance and desired use of the programme in the target group of patients were inquired.

The participants (N = 421) were interviewed regarding the application and acceptance of “Deprexis” as well as depressive symptoms and resulting functional restrictions (PHQ-9).

The participants had clinically relevant scores on the depression scale (average: 14.6 points). 93% wished to use an online programme. 42% assessed it as a low-threshold test for psychotherapy, 29% considered it a suitable tool for the bridging of waiting times. 17% even regarded it as a potential replacement for psychotherapy.

The results indicate high acceptance within the target group and reveal fields of application as a complementary measure at various stages of the treatment process.