CHICAGO (AP) – Doctors-in-training face long, stressful hours, sleepless nights and a high risk of depression and suicidal thoughts. A study suggests online self-help behavior therapy could help.

Suicidal thoughts were much less common in new doctors who had four half-hour online sessions prior to their first year of post-graduate training, compared with those who got no therapy.

The sessions urged focusing on positive thoughts and activities, and not dwelling on stresses and failures.

The study involved about 200 first-year medical residents from two U.S. universities.

An earlier study found that suicidal thoughts increased almost four-fold early in residency.

The new results were published Wednesday in the journal JAMA Psychiatry.