Tele‐medicine and improvement of mental health problems in COVID‐19 pandemic: A systematic review

Abstract

Introduction Tele‐medicine services have been developed in response to the COVID‐19 pandemic, which disrupts mental health services. The present study investigates the effectiveness of telephone‐delivered services for psychological disorders in the COVID‐19 pandemic. Methods We searched PubMed/Medline, Embase and Cochrane Controlled Register of Trials for relevant clinical studies up to February 1, 2022. Following terms were used: “severe acute respiratory syndrome”, “Coronavirus”, “Coronavirus infection”, “SARS‐CoV‐2”, “COVID‐19”, “mental disorder”, “mental health”, “mental health program”, “mental health service”, “psychiatric service”, “telemedicine”, “Telehealth”, “Tele‐health”, “Telecare”, “Mobile health”. Results Twelve relevant clinical articles were included in our study. Eight articles were parallel randomized controlled trials (RCTs), two were Quasi‐experimental, and one was a multicenter retrospective cohort study. A total of 1900 adults (18 years old or above that) were included. Online telecommunication methods like online apps and videoconference were the most common interventions. The most prevalent measured outcome was levels of anxiety and depression among participants. Eleven out of 12 articles showed a significant association between telemedicine and mental health improvement. Conclusions The included studies in the current systematic review reported the probable efficacy of telemedicine in improving mental health disorders during the COVID‐19 pandemic. But it is not possible to determine the best telecommunication method for each mental disorder in different populations and the preference of patients is still face to face therapy. So RCTs in different populations with previous mental disorders or chronic diseases are required to investigate the further telemedicine's efficacy on managing mental problems.

Remote mental health care interventions during the COVID-19 pandemic: An umbrella review

“…Most reviews (k = 22, Table 1) presented findings from 2020. Sixteen reviews searched for studies until the end of 2021 or the first quarter of 2022 (Hatami et al, 2022). As presented in the characteristics table included in the Appendix, reviews most commonly synthesized findings from studies performed in outpatient mental health services (k = 17), inpatient psychiatric services (k = 10), community mental health services (k = 6) and (general hospital) emergency departments (k = 7).…”

“…consultation and counseling of psychotherapy or psychotropic medication prescriptions and follow-ups through telephone or video-conferencing platforms). Earlier in the pandemic, implementation of aVMH care appeared mostly limited to (Bertuzzi et al, 2021;Hatami et al, 2022;Soklaridis, Lin, Lalani, Rodak, & Sockalingam, 2020). Reviews examining uptake of sTMH care noted, after an initial slight decrease in appointments, an increase in remote therapy sessions and consultations even beyond pre-pandemic levels, with better adherence and decreased no-shows (Li et al, 2021;Siegel, Zuo, Moghaddamcharkari, McIntyre, & Rosenblat, 2021).…”

“…apps); not effective when used as a standalone therapy. (Hatami et al, 2022;Murphy et al, 2021) TMH evaluated as (cost-) effective and feasible/ acceptable (Ali et al, 2021;Ardekani et al, 2021;Bertuzzi et al, 2021;Hatami et al, 2022;Keyes et al, 2022;Lemieux et al, 2020;Linardon et al, 2022 ;Murphy et al, 2021;Selick et al, 2021) TMH/VMH: lack of (long-term) effectiveness studies during COVID-19 (Abd-Alrazaq et al, 2021;Appleton et al, 2021;Lignou et al, 2022;Thenral & Annamalai, 2020) TMH: effective evaluation for (early stage of) common mental health disorders (Abraham, Jithesh, et al, 2021;Chiesa et al, 2021;Mohammadzadeh et al, 2022) TMH care evaluated as not effective for prevention and rehabilitation care. (Abraham, Jithesh, et al, 2021) TMH versus VMH: therapistguided online therapies more efficacious in reducing depression and anxiety than self-help internet-based treatment or apps.…”

Business Strategy for Pharmaceutical Company to Become the Market Leader in the Psychiatry Sector in Indonesia

“…The increasing number of social media and its users can increase public awareness of mental health, but on the other hand, it can aggravate mental health issues [14] [15]. The rise of telemedicine has also increased the number of patient consultations and has been proven to improve mental health conditions [16]. Patients can also buy psychiatric drugs online in e-commerce other than psychotropic groups by uploading their prescription where this convenience should increase the drug sales.…”

The connection between mental health problems and the COVID-19 pandemic

“…Kot primer dobre prakse in varovalni dejavnik se je izkazala tudi storitev t. i. telemedicine(Hatami, 2022), saj so lahko ljudje kljub upoštevanju ukrepov socialne distance in izolacije nadaljevali delo s strokovnjaki za duševno zdravje in kontinuirano…”