NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - People with depression who use Internet support groups heavily tend to be more severely depressed and socially isolated than those who get less help on the Web, but they also may gain the greatest benefit from the support groups, new study findings indicate.
"Although more study is needed, our study suggests that Internet support groups for depression do not do harm, and might be helpful in recovery," study author Dr. Daniel E. Ford of Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, Maryland told Reuters Health.
"Internet support groups for depression provide a useful forum for information sharing and emotional support," he added.
Studies of the effectiveness of various online peer-support groups have yielded mixed results, but few have investigated how patients perceive the support's value or the relationship between a depressed person's use of the online support groups and their use of face-to-face care.
The present study involved 103 people who used Internet-based support groups for depression. Nearly 80% of the support group users were female, most (86%) were currently depressed, and nearly all had been diagnosed with depression.
Over half of the study participants reported heavy use of online support groups, logging on to various Internet sites for five or more hours during a two-week period, Ford and his colleagues report in the American Journal of Psychiatry. And these heavy users were five times more likely to no longer meet the criteria for depression at follow-up one year later than those who used the support groups less often.
Overall, roughly one third of the study participants were no longer depressed at follow-up, the report indicates.
The study participants generally used the online groups for emotional support, but many also reported receiving medication-related information.
Still, use of the online support groups did not increase the users' social isolation, as the researchers thought it might. In fact, it did not seem to make any difference in a person's perceived level of social support, such as whether or not they thought they had someone to help them if they were confined to bed or someone to take them to the doctor when needed.
Nearly 40% of the users, however, said they preferred Internet support groups to more traditional face-to-face counseling, even though only one third had ever participated in such counseling, study findings indicate.
Further, in what the researchers call a "surprising" finding, most of the patients said they told their doctor or other healthcare provider that they used online support groups--a practice that Ford said was "in the patient's interest."
"I would suggest that patients ask their providers about any information they read on the Internet that was of concern to them," he added.
Since nearly all of the study participants were being treated for their depression, the researchers do not know if online support groups would be similarly helpful for individuals who are not seeing a health professional.
However, since "one key to recovery from depression is active coping, using all of your resources and trying multiple methods to learn about your depression and new ways to cope is important," Ford said. "The Internet may help with this."
But, he added, "just as important is having a caring health professional who monitors your progress and provides the advice tailored to your unique situation."
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