In an article published in the April issue of the International Journal of Victimology, Michel Perreault, PhD, presented the results from a study of online consultations with people suffering from social anxiety disorder (SAD) and panic disorder with or without agoraphobia (PD and PDA). The goal of the study was to understand the obstacles encountered by people with anxiety disorders when they are looking to access care.

Treating anxiety disorders can be difficult due to the hardship that these patients face when trying to get the care they need, as fears associated with new things, travelling, and consulting medical professionals can lead to avoidance behaviour. To prevent this behaviour, therapies that minimize contact with the therapist, such as self-managed treatment, bibliotherapy, or videoconferencing-based cognitive behavioural therapy, have shown to be effective.

To find out more about the expectations and needs of people with anxiety disorders, Michel Perreault and his team turned to the Web. The consultations that this team of researchers conducted in 2008 indeed bore fruit: more than 700 people filled out the on-line questionnaire on the sites of the Douglas Institute and its study partners. More specifically, 653 people affected with an anxiety disorder and 61 family caregivers responded to the questionnaire to describe the difficulties they experienced in finding a resource that could provide treatment.

The high response rate to the online questionnaire shows that the Web represents an effective avenue for engaging a population that is considered difficult to reach. Forty-three per cent of the participants were referred to online consultations through the Web sites of two support groups called Revivre and Phobies-Zéro. As this type of assessment tool can establish the expectations and needs of those suffering from anxiety disorders, it could also be a useful and inexpensive way to pursue studies based on patient perspectives.

To conduct this study, principle investigator Michel Perreault, PhD (Douglas Institute and McGill University), enlisted the collaboration of a number of partners: Claude Bélanger, PhD (Douglas Institute and UQAM); Mariko Chartier-Otis, doctoral student in psychology at UQAM; André Marchand, PhD (Louis-H. Lafontaine Hospital and UQAM); Valérie Royle (Phobies-Zéro); Camillo Zacchia, PhD (Douglas Institute); Mimi Israël, MD (Douglas Institute and McGill University); Stéphane Bouchard, PhD (Université du Québec en Outaouais and the Centre hospitalier Pierre- Janet); Amparo Garcia (Douglas Institute); Myra Piat, PhD (Douglas Institute and McGill University); and Joe Rochford, PhD (Douglas Institute and McGill University).