The researchers, led by Dr Shyamala Nada-Raja from the university's Injury Prevention Research Unit, are trialling Rid - Recovery via the Internet from Depression - a series of interactive exercises and mental health surveys which can be accessed by individuals from their homes or workplaces.
Participants are asked about their recent moods and feelings, and monitored over two years to see if the exercises have decreased their feelings of depression or anxiety and improved their quality of life.
Also involving the Australian National University, the research has attracted funding from the Ministry of Health and the Health Research Council of New Zealand.
At least 700 participants were needed to provide quality data for analysis, Dr Nada-Raja said yesterday.
A trial website launched last month had already received 15,000 hits - about 25% of them from outside New Zealand - with more than 1000 people filling in the questionnaire to say they would like to participate in the study.
However, not all those people met the criteria, which included living in New Zealand, having been diagnosed with depression or an anxiety-related disorder by a health professional, and already having a treatment plan in place.
"We still have places for hundreds of participants," Dr Nada-Raja said.
"We don't have an upper limit but we would like to see at least 700 people taking part by the end of this year."
Researchers hoped the self-help programme would be useful for people who were not in regular contact with health professionals, or those who lived in isolated communities.
"It is about helping people to regain control of their lives. For a sizable proportion of people, this could be a first step to recovery."
If the two-year trial proved beneficial, the programmes would be made more widely available in Australia and New Zealand, she said.
The trial website can be found at www.otago.ac.nz/rid
