Dr Madelyne Bisby, a Clinical Psychologist and Postdoctoral Research Fellow who works across both the eCentreClinic and MindSpot, was awarded the Macquarie University Research Acceleration Scheme grant alongside Professor Nick Titov and Professor Blake Dear.

“Globally, many people who receive mental health treatments attend only one treatment session”

Dr Bisby is interested in understanding the mechanisms of symptom change in online treatments, and using knowledge to develop brief, effective treatments.

“Globally, many people who receive mental health treatments attend only one treatment session,” Dr Bisby said. “There are many reasons for this, including known barriers to ongoing treatment such as time and money. However, we also know that people experience improvements in their mental health after only one session of treatment, and many individuals are only interested in a brief treatment experience.

“We developed the single-session treatment to meet the needs of those who would prefer shorter treatments and who cannot, or would prefer not to, access face-to-face treatments,” she said.

Founding Director of the MindSpot Clinic, Professor Nick Titov, said this trial will be the first to examine an internet-delivered single-session treatment for anxiety and depression in adults.

“There are clinical trials from other research groups demonstrating that single-session treatments are effective for a range of mental health difficulties when delivered in community health settings,” he said.

“Similar to the Wellbeing Course, this treatment is designed to help people self-manage their symptoms of anxiety and depression"

Dr Bisby said previous research trials have focused on single-session treatments for anxiety, and particularly for specific phobias such as spiders or snakes.

“In these studies, single-session treatments are just as effective as multi-session treatments in reducing symptoms,” she said.

“There’s also some evidence that single-session treatments are effective for anxiety and depression when delivered in face-to-face community health settings.  However, there’s a real lack of research exploring which mental health difficulties this treatment approach is the most effective for.”

Dr Bisby explained the soon to be evaluated eCentreClinic Single Session Treatment is based on an existing treatment course at MindSpot, the Wellbeing Course.

“Similar to the Wellbeing Course, this treatment is designed to help people self-manage their symptoms of anxiety and depression,” she said.

“The Single Session Treatment is not just the five lessons of the Wellbeing Course condensed into one lesson; rather, it focuses on helping people understand their own cycle of symptoms and includes practical strategies that people can use straight away.

In our clinical trial at the eCentreClinic, the single session treatment will be offered in a similar way to standard treatments at MindSpot – that is, an online module with support from a psychologist over the telephone or secure messaging platform,” Dr Bisby said.

“Our internet-delivered single-session trial is incredibly exciting and is the first step towards developing effective and accessible brief online treatments.”

Applications for the Single Session Treatment trial will open in January 2022. In the meantime, people can register their interest in participating by emailing the eCentreClinic - contact@ecentreclinic.org