Renn BN, Hoeft TJ, Lee HS, Bauer AM, Areán PA. (2019). Preference for in-person psychotherapy versus digital psychotherapy options for depression: Survey of adults in the US. npj Digital Medicine. 2(6). doi: 10.1038/s41746-019-0077-1
Researchers recruited 164 people who had considered psychotherapy for depression in the past using Amazon Mechanical Turk to complete a survey evaluating preferences for in-person and digital psychotherapy. Surveys included closed and open-ended questions. Questions addressed digital psychotherapy delivered online, using an app, with and without support from a peer-counselor or expert clinician, and using videoconferencing with a clinician. Most participants reported that they would likely try in-person (73%) and digital psychotherapy (72%) in the future. When asked to choose, 44% of participants preferred in-person psychotherapy, compared to 25.6% who preferred self-guided digital psychotherapy. Fewer participants reported a preference for digital psychotherapy supported by an expert counselor (19.7%) or peer (8.5%). More participants reported having concerns with self-guided (27.4%), peer-supported (36.8%), and expert-supported (36.8%) digital psychotherapy than with in-person therapy (17.7%). Concerns included the relative effectiveness of digital psychotherapy compared to in-person therapy (62.8%), access barriers to digital psychotherapy (31.7%), issues specific to peer support (e.g., effectiveness, training, and professionalism of peer-counselors; 16.2%), issues specific to self-guided psychotherapy (e.g., lack of personalization, safety issues, and developer trustworthiness; 12.8%), concerns about privacy and confidentiality (digital therapy: 12.2%, in-person psychotherapy: 3%), social anxiety (digital psychotherapy: 7.3%, in-person psychotherapy: 6.7%), and preference for in-person psychotherapy as a barrier to digital psychotherapy (13.4%). Researchers conclude that the results of the survey indicate a need to better disseminate information about digital psychotherapy, particularly evidence supporting digital psychotherapeutics and peer counselors.