AIM:To conduct a review of the telepsychiatry literature.

Clinical and process outcomes indicate delivering cognitive-behavioral group treatment for PTSD-related anger problems via videoteleconferencing is an effective and feasible way to increase access to evidence-based care for veterans residing in rural or remote locations.

Telemental health, in the form of interactive videoconferencing, has become a critical tool in the delivery of mental health care. It has demonstrated the ability to increase access to and quality of care, and in some settings to do so more effectively than treatment delivered in-person. This article updates and consolidates previous guidance developed by The American Telemedicine Association (ATA) and The American Psychiatric Association (APA) on the development, implementation, administration, and provision of telemental health services. The guidance included in this article is intended to assist in the development and delivery of effective and safe telemental health services founded on expert consensus, research evidence, available resources, and patient needs. It is recommended that the material reviewed be contemplated in conjunction with APA and ATA resources, as well as the pertinent literature, for additional details on the topics covered.

The coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic is a seminal event that is precipitating radical transformative change to our society and health care systems. Social distancing, isolation, and deployment of suppression and mitigation strategies are directly influencing the morbidity and mortality rates of the pandemic. 1 Remote communication technologies are being broadly deployed in all spheres of medicine to support these strategies while still delivering effective health care. Telepsychiatry, in the form of videoconferencing and other technologies, was uniquely positioned to push the field of psychiatry to the forefront of these efforts. Prior to the pandemic, telepsychiatry had built a strong scientific foundation and real-world evidence base, demonstrating its effectiveness across a range of psychiatric treatments, populations, and settings. 2-5 Although previously leveraged temporarily in disaster response, 6 telepsychiatry's use in the COVID-19 pandemic has been distinctive and will have long-lasting and wide-ranging effects on the field of psychiatry, including mental health care delivery and configuration and patient experience and expectations.Globally, health care systems, psychiatric organizations, and individual clinicians have been rapidly virtualizing their operations. These activities have included the extensive use of videoconferencing, either expanding or initiating direct clinician-home to patient-home services, and partially or fully virtualizing administrative operations. Implementation has occurred at a pace never experienced in telemedicine, with many large organizations fully virtualizing in a matter of days. Historically, full implementation of telepsychiatry, especially in large organizations, could take months to years. Rapid virtualization has shown that clinicians, patients, and systems can quickly adapt to telepsychiatry, although not without challenges and lessons learned. Previous barriers including regulatory constraints, system inertia, and general resistance to telepsychiatry have disappeared, at least temporarily; technical innovations abound as clinicians and organizations work to best configure telepsychiatry to current clinical needs and environments.Historically, telepsychiatry has experienced a substantial evolutionary period with the expansion of the internet and the use of other technologies and peripheral devices that are ubiquitous to consumers and based largely on commercial uses and applications. Currently, in response to the COVID-19 emergency, there has been an unprecedented revolution in the telehealth landscape with the lifting of federal and state regulatory barriers to telemedicine and telepsychiatry. Such changes include the suspension of the Ryan Haight Online Pharmacy Consumer Protection Act of 2008, which placed VIEWPOINT