A Systematic Review on TeleMental Health in Youth Mental Health: Focus on Anxiety, Depression and Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder

Abstract

Background and Objectives: The Internet is widely used and disseminated amongst youngsters and many web-based applications may serve to improve mental health care access, particularly in remote and distant sites or in settings where there is a shortage of mental health practitioners. However, in recent years, specific digital psychiatry interventions have been developed and implemented for special populations such as children and adolescents. Materials and Methods: Hereby, we describe the current state-of-the-art in the field of TMH application for young mental health, focusing on recent studies concerning anxiety, obsessive-compulsive disorder and affective disorders. Results: After screening and selection process, a total of 56 studies focusing on TMH applied to youth depression (n = 29), to only youth anxiety (n = 12) or mixed youth anxiety/depression (n = 7) and youth OCD (n = 8) were selected and retrieved. Conclusions: Telemental Health (TMH; i.e., the use of telecommunications and information technology to provide access to mental health assessment, diagnosis, intervention, consultation, supervision across distance) may offer an effective and efficacious tool to overcome many of the barriers encountering in the delivery of young mental health care.

COVID-19 and Youth Psychopathological Distress in Umbria, Central Italy: A 2-Year Observational Study in a Real-World Setting

“…Indeed, digital mental health interventions, such as those delivered via mobile and web-based platforms, offer the potential to improve access to care while avoiding many existing barriers to receiving face-to-face intervention, including stigma and time ( 52 – 54 ). The evidence base for digital mental health interventions in the general population is rapidly accumulating ( 55 , 56 ), and many studies on the topic reported that such interventions were either effective or partially effective in producing beneficial changes in the main psychological outcome variables, also among youngsters ( 50 , 57 , 58 ).…”

Digitalizing Public Services: Opportunities for Latin America and the Caribbean

“…For example, for a complete guided iCBT treatment over two to three months, a psychologist will need to spend on average between 1.5 and 2 hours (Josephine et al 2017;Etzelmueller et al 2020). In contrast, a psychologist should devote at least 6 hours per patient to complete 12 in-person or phone CBT sessions (Castro et al 2020;Orsolini et al 2021). Moreover, evidence suggests that for guided iCBT, a trained non-psychologist such as a nurse or social worker can be as effective as a psychologist (Titov et al 2010).…”

“…In contrast, 85 percent of patients complete telephone CBT, which is comparable to rates for in-person CBT(Richards and Richardson 2012;van Ballegooijen et al 2014). There is limited evidence on the long-term effects of iCBT, but available evidence shows that effects for guided iCBT appear to last for six months(Bennet et al 2020;Nair et al 2018) and for unguided iCBT they can last from three to six months(Bennet et al 2020;Schouten et al 2022).Moreover, evidence shows that psychological sessions (using CBT or other techniques) conducted over the telephone or via teleconference can be as effective as inperson care(Barnett et al 2021;Orsolini et al 2021), but at lower cost due to time and transportation savings(Näslund et al 2020;Guaiana et al 2021). These results suggest that teletherapy can be used to improve access to populations with limited mobility or in geographical areas with human resource shortages.Prevention and early detection of depression are crucial to address the burden of this disease.…”

Tobacco use among Appalachian adolescents: An urgent need for virtual scale out of effective interventions

“…Research shows that these dynamic multilevel factors correlate with Appalachian adolescent tobacco use and progression 19 , 22 , 42 , 48 . Building on the growing demand and sophistication of telehealth for youth and young adults 49 , we posit that virtual implementation of tobacco interventions will address many of the unique barriers to services among Appalachians adolescent. Specifically, the scaling out of evidence-based interventions virtually could address challenges of: 1) accessibility, including service and provider shortages, affordability, and transportation; 2) acceptability, including issues of privacy and stigma; and 3) cultural relevance.…”