Online therapy

Living life online might make us more fractious and distracted and sad, but - luckily! - it can also make us feel better.

At least that's what researchers at Sydney's University of New South Wales have discovered. They've found that Internet-based therapy works as well as in-person treatment in combating depression - and it works even though their test-case is called the "Sadness Program."

According to Gavin Andrews, the lead author of the study, the program's principal attraction is that people can seek treatment wherever they have Internet access. No rushing out during the workday, no struggling to find child care: It's help on demand, provided via homework assignments and e-mail with a mental health clinician. The program includes online lessons presented in the form of an illustrated story about a woman struggling with depression - kind of like low-budget Pixar psychotherapy.

Another benefit of the program, aside from its convenience, is the limited stigma associated with logging on to seek treatment. There's no office waiting room to navigate, just an online treatment module. And though the program was carefully designed by humans, it isn't one. So it boasts a certain logic that human practitioners sometimes lack, Andrews said.

And you might not get distracted, either. There is evidence that people are more honest online than in person. "They fake good (cheer) to seek the approval of their doctor and probably don't care about the computer," Andrews said.

The researchers are now focused on broadening the program and putting it to use by primary-care physicians who treat people with anxiety or depressive disorders. They are also thinking about how it might be used by remote populations in Australia or people in combat zones who are coping with combat stress, Andrews said.

The work they've done is new, but it may sound familiar to anyone who has ever interacted with a computer program called ELIZA.

Named for Eliza Doolittle of "My Fair Lady," the computer program was developed by an MIT professor in the 1960s. It simulates a conversation between a psychotherapist and a patient, responding to key words in the questions being asked. The virtual friend with the Pygmalion namesake did seem to be a good listener. She wasn't really, of course. But soon some program could be.

• The writer is a member of The Post's Outlook section.