A review of the effectiveness of computer-based interventions in Australia for anxiety-based disorders and reconceptualization of these interventions from a neuropsychotherapy focus

The purpose of this paper was to analyse the effectiveness of computer-based interventions for anxiety-based disorders in Australia and to propose an alternative model for computer-based interventions through the focus of neuropsychotherapy. In order to illustrate the importance of this subject, the first chapter identified that not only does the number of Australians who have an anxiety-based disorder appear to be growing; only 37.8% of the Australians who have an anxiety-based disorder are actually seeking treatment. There is a large population of unmet need in the Australian community and that there is a demand for alternative treatment options that may address this unmet need. The second chapter identified that there is a significant economic impact for both the individual suffering from an anxiety-based disorder and the Australian community as a whole. As a result, this chapter suggests that there is both an ethical and financial incentive for the government to address the large population of unmet need in Australia. The third chapter suggests that the inclusion of Internet-based anxiety disorder treatment programs may potentially meet some of the unmet need in the Australian community. Consequently this chapter conducted a critical review of this literature and identified that human-supported web-based therapeutic interventions have been shown to have the capacity to be just as effective as traditional face-to-face psychotherapy with similar levels of client dropout and adherence rates. The fourth chapter identifies that the recent developments in neuropsychotherapy have improved mental healthcare and thus discusses how the principles of neuropsychotherapy are applied to the treatment of anxiety disorders in general. Chapter five specifies how Internet-based treatments and are conceptualized through neuroscience and neuropsychotherapy. Consequently, chapter six concludes this critical review by proposing an alternative web-based therapeutic intervention model based particularly on the analysis set out in Chapters four and five. This alternative model suggests that the human-supported web-based treatment include occasional traditional face-to-face interaction between the client and the therapist such that the web-based therapeutic session would not act as a stand-alone service but actually serve as a complimentary intervention combined with traditional face-to-face therapy.