Several barriers complicate access to psychotherapy for depression, including time commitment, location of services, and stigma. Digital treatment has the potential to address these barriers, yet long term use of digital psychotherapy is poor. This paper presents data from a mixed-methods, online survey to document concerns patients with depression face when given the choice of in-person psychotherapy and digital psychotherapy. Participants were 164 adults living in the United States who had previously used or considered psychotherapy for depression. Rural-dwelling and racial/ethnic minority (Native American, African American, and Spanish-speaking) respondents were purposively sampled. Participants were asked their preferences for and opinions about four treatment modalities: self-guided digital, peer-supported digital, expert-guided digital, or in-person psychotherapy. Less than half (44.5%) of participants preferred in-person psychotherapy, 25.6% preferred self-guided digital treatment, 19.7% preferred expert-guided digital treatment, and 8.5% peer-supported digital treatment. Principal themes extracted from qualitative analysis centered on the efficacy of digital treatment, access to digital treatment, concerns about peer-supported care, confidentiality and privacy concerns, preference for in-person treatment, skepticism about self-guided therapy, and the impact of social anxiety on the use of video-chat based care. Future development of digital psychotherapy will need to address concerns regarding efficacy, privacy, data security, and methods to enhance motivation to use these treatments.

At-risk drinkers in the integrated care condition were more likely to access treatment and decrease harmful drinking behaviors than those in the enhanced referral condition. Implications for future research and treatment are discussed.

Key PointsQuestionAre people willing to participate in research advertised on the internet, and is willingness to participate associated with type of study sponsor?FindingsThis mixed-methods survey and qualitative study of 914 respondents indicated that they were more likely to participate and share their social media data with researchers in university-led research studies than in studies conducted by the US federal government or pharmaceutical companies. However, only 49.3% indicated they would share their social media data at all.MeaningThese findings indicate that researchers may face challenges in recruiting representative samples when recruiting from internet platforms.