The Wellbeing Program: A randomized controlled trial of internet based treatment of anxiety and depression

Participants will be randomly assigned to one of two groups: 1) an immediate treatment group, or; 2) a delayed treatment group also known as a waitlist control group (beginnning the program 11 weeks after the immediate treatment group begin). All participants will meet Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders 4th Edition (DSM-IV) criteria for depression, and/or social phobia and/or panic disorder (with or without agoraphobia) and/or generalised anxiety disorder (GAD). All participants will complete 8 lessons of Internet based treatment about management of symptoms of depression and anxiety. One lesson will be completed every 7 to 10 days. Each lesson will take about 15 minutes to complete. Participants will also have access to summaries of each lesson, and will read anonymous stories about other people with anxiety, taking a further 20 minutes per summary. All participants will also receive automatic email and weekly reminder phone calls by a clinical psychologist, and have access to a clinician-moderated online forum discussing content of the program. The duration of the reminder emails/phone calls and contribution to the forum is expected to be 5-10 minutes per week. The duration of the program is 10 weeks, but participants in the immediate treatment group will be contacted 3 months post program and asked to complete follow-up questionnaires. Study questionnaires will be administered at application, pre-education, post-education, and at 3-months post-education. These will take about 20-30 minutes to complete. The treatment materials are based on the Anxiety and Sadness Programs, which apply cognitive behavioural techniques.