The Internet has become a valuable tool for behavioral healthcare companies to disseminate information to patients, but few provide online counseling for addiction or mental-health problems, according to researchers from Brandeis University.

A group led by researcher Constance Horgan looked at 60 healthcare markets nationally and studied health maintenance organizations, preferred provider organizations, and point-of-service behavioral health plans. They found that most offered online provider directories, educational information, and self-assessment tools. About half offered online treatment referrals.

But only about one-third of the companies provided personalized responses to questions or problems online, and just three percent offered online counseling.

Horgan said the study is part of "an ongoing effort to determine how health insurers allocate resources for alcohol and substance abuse treatment -- historically an undermet need."

"Delivering behavioral-health services such as counseling certainly raises more complex clinical, professional, privacy, and legal issues, than, for example, offering educational information," she added. "At least in the short term, increasing use of Internet-based tools designed to facilitate and complement, rather than replace, traditional clinical services seems most likely."

The study appears in the journal Psychiatric Services.