PHILADELPHIA, Feb. 24 (UPI) -- People with a mental illness assigned to online peer support groups that share a similar experience say the groups were helpful, U.S. researchers say.
Mark Salzer of Temple University in Philadelphia and colleagues studied the effectiveness of online peer support for people with a mental illness in a randomized, controlled trial of Internet peer support.
The study involved 300 participants who have severe mental illnesses including schizophrenia-spectrum, bipolar and depressive disorders. They were assigned to an e-mail listserv, a bulletin board online community or a control group.
Salzer and colleagues found participation in the online peer support groups did not have much of an effect on the patients' well-being from a statistical standpoint; but there was evidence that the participants assigned to the online peer support groups said the groups were relevant, supportive and beneficial.
"These groups likely provide some degree of comfort in sharing a similar experience," Salzer said in a statement. "While we can't yet quantify the benefit with our measurements, it does appear that participants benefit in online contacts with one another."
The findings are published in the journal Social Science and Medicine.
