"Doctorsintraining face long stressful hours sleepless nights and a high risk of depression http and suicidal thoughts but often are too stoic and timestarved to seek help. A study suggests online selfhelp behavior therapy could be a solution. Suicidal thoughts were much less common in new doctors who had four halfhour online sessions before starting their first year of training compared with those who got no therapy. The research involved about  medical interns  residents in their first postgraduate year which is often one of the most intense periods of doctor training. It often involves hour weeks and overnight hospital shifts dealing with multiple medical crises. An earlier study of  interns found that suicidal thoughts increased almost fourfold during the first three months of residency said Dr. Constance Guille of the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston. Her research group led both studies. Sarah Dalechek a firstyear psychiatry resident at that university said her program requires two monthlong rotations of hour overnight shifts in an emergency room. She said she became very depressed but had little time to seek help.  Its very stressful because youre sleepdeprived youre not eating right ... youre working backtoback shifts and youre trying to catch up on sleep but you cant Dalechek said. She was not involved in the study. Dalechek said she looked into seeing a therapist but would have preferred a webbased program since its confidential and requires no appointment. Luckily her depression subsided when that rotation ended. Guille said offering webbased therapy routinely to medical residents could be beneficial if her research results are confirmed in a broader study. The results were published Wednesday in the journal JAMA Psychiatry. The study involved interns at Yale University and the University of Southern California. It used a free online program developed at the National Institute for Mental Health Research at the Australian National University in Canberra. Interns who got the sessions were  percent less likely to have suicidal thoughts during that first year compared to those who received four weekly emails with information about depressions and where to seek help. The online program included sessions about how to put feelings of stress or despair into perspective. For example a poor test grade or bad performance evaluation might lead to feelings of Im not good enough but the lessons encourage more positive thinking about how many exams have you passed to put this failure in a more accurate light Guille said. The training also encourages seeking out activities or thoughts that bring pleasure especially when feeling down. Previous research has shown benefits from similar webbased therapy in other settings. Guille said medical students and residents tend to be highachieving perfectionists but that they need to learn you cant always be perfect in medicine you have to figure out how to deal with failure."