Psychotherapeutic and Psychiatric Intervention in Patients With COVID-19 and Their Relatives: Protocol for the DigiCOVID Trial (original) (raw)

Telepsychiatry During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Development of a Protocol for Telemental Health Care

Frontiers in Psychiatry, 2020

Background: The rapid spread of the Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has forced most countries to take drastic public health measures, including the closure of most mental health outpatient services and some inpatient units. This has suddenly created the need to adapt and expand telepsychiatry care across the world. However, not all health care services might be ready to cope with this public health demand. The present study was set to create a practical and clinically useful protocol for telemental health care to be applied in the context of the current COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: A panel of psychiatrists from 15 different countries [covering all World Health Organization (WHO) regions] was convened. The panel used a combination of reactive Delphi technique and consensus development conference strategies to develop a protocol for the provision of telemental health care during the COVID-19 pandemic. Results: The proposed protocol describes a semi-structured initial assessment and a series of potential interventions matching mild, moderate, or high-intensity needs of target populations. Conclusions: Telemedicine has become a pivotal tool in the task of ensuring the continuous provision of mental health care for the population, and the outlined protocol

Clinician’s experience of telepsychiatry consultations

Asian Journal of Psychiatry

Elsevier has created a COVID-19 resource centre with free information in English and Mandarin on the novel coronavirus COVID-19. The COVID-19 resource centre is hosted on Elsevier Connect, the company's public news and information website. Elsevier hereby grants permission to make all its COVID-19-related research that is available on the COVID-19 resource centre-including this research content-immediately available in PubMed Central and other publicly funded repositories, such as the WHO COVID database with rights for unrestricted research re-use and analyses in any form or by any means with acknowledgement of the original source. These permissions are granted for free by Elsevier for as long as the COVID-19 resource centre remains active.

Mobilization of Telepsychiatry in Response to COVID-19—Moving Toward 21st Century Access to Care

Administration and Policy in Mental Health and Mental Health Services Research, 2020

The COVID-19 pandemic threatens to disrupt the provision of mental health services. In response, policymakers, administrators, and providers have taken bold steps toward enabling telepsychiatry to bridge this sudden gap in care for our most vulnerable populations. With rapid deregulation and adoption of this modality of care, careful consideration of issues related to policy and implementation is essential to maximize its effectiveness and mitigate unintended consequences. Though the crisis places the healthcare system under strain, it sets the stage for a lasting shift in not only how care is delivered, but also our beliefs around the system's capacity for rapid, innovative change.

Telepsychiatry: An Electronic Alternative

Iris publishers LLC, 2019

One of the major issues facing the patient population in the United States is the problem of effective and timely mental health care. The core of this issue is that patients are unable to see a mental health provider in a timely manner to be screened for psychiatric illness, be competently diagnosed and subsequently treated in an evidence-based manner. In a bid to mitigate this issue, the field of telepsychiatry has slowly evolved in the last couple of decades into a system which allows face-to-face quality psychiatric assessment, diagnosis and treatment modalities delivered through electronic mediums, primarily video-teleconferencing. This electronic, cost effective mechanism allows access to a mental health provider in a timely manner, enhancing psychiatric care due to early intervention and follow-up, leading to positive outcomes. There is a dire need for mental health providers to be taught the skills required to evaluate patients who are not geographically present in their vicinity due to various circumstances and the optimal ways to assess their mental health conditions. There is a need for clinicians to learn this new and evolving technology and gain expertise to identify underlying emotional issues via technological means and help patients in achieving positive mental health outcomes.

Videoconferencing-Based Telemental Health: Important Questions for the COVID-19 Era From Clinical and Patient-Centered Perspectives

JMIR Mental Health, 2020

The COVID-19 pandemic has intensified the search for digital approaches in mental health treatment, particularly due to patients and clinicians practicing social distancing. This has resulted in the dramatic growth of videoconferencing-based telemental health (V-TMH) services. It is critical for behavioral health providers and those in the mental health field to understand the implications of V-TMH expansion on the stakeholders who use such services, such as patients and clinicians, to provide the service that addresses both patient and clinical needs. Several key questions arise as a result, such as the following: (1) in what ways does V-TMH affect the practice of psychotherapy (ie, clinical needs), (2) to what extent are ethical and patient-centered concerns warranted in terms of V-TMH services (ie, patient needs), and (3) how do factors related to user experience affect treatment dynamics for both the patient and therapist (ie, patient and clinical needs)? We discuss how behavior...

Telemental health: A status update

World Psychiatry, 2015

A rather large body of literature now exists on the use of telemental health services in the diagnosis and management of various psychiatric conditions. This review aims to provide an up-to-date assessment of telemental health, focusing on four main areas: computerized CBT (cCBT), Internet-based CBT (iCBT), virtual reality exposure therapy (VRET), and mobile therapy (mTherapy). Four scientific databases were searched and, where possible, larger, better-designed meta-analyses and controlled trials were highlighted. Taken together, published studies support an expanded role for telepsychiatry tools, with advantages that include increased care access, enhanced efficiency, reduced stigma associated with visiting mental health clinics, and the ability to bypass diagnosis-specific obstacles to treatment, such as when social anxiety prevents a patient from leaving the house. Of technology-mediated therapies, cCBT and iCBT possess the most efficacy evidence, with VRET and mTherapy representing promising but less researched options that have grown in parallel with virtual reality and mobile technology advances. Nonetheless, telepsychiatry remains challenging because of the need for specific computer skills, the difficulty in providing patients with a deep understanding or support, concerns about the "therapeutic alliance", privacy fears, and the well documented problem of patient attrition. Future studies should further test the efficacy, advantages and limitations of technology-enabled CBT, as well as explore the online delivery of other psychotherapeutic and psychopharmacological modalities.

The urge to implement and expand telepsychiatry during the COVID-19 crisis: Early career psychiatrists’ perspective

Revista de Psiquiatría y Salud Mental, 2020

Elsevier has created a COVID-19 resource centre with free information in English and Mandarin on the novel coronavirus COVID-19. The COVID-19 resource centre is hosted on Elsevier Connect, the company's public news and information website. Elsevier hereby grants permission to make all its COVID-19-related research that is available on the COVID-19 resource centre-including this research content-immediately available in PubMed Central and other publicly funded repositories, such as the WHO COVID database with rights for unrestricted research re-use and analyses in any form or by any means with acknowledgement of the original source. These permissions are granted for free by Elsevier for as long as the COVID-19 resource centre remains active.

New Frontiers in Healthcare and Technology: Internet-and Web-Based Mental Options Emerge to Complement In-Person and Telepsychiatric Care Options

Journal of Health & Medical Informatics, 2015

Background: Web and Internet-based resources are remarkably popular with the public, patients and others as a way to access mental health information, tools for self-care, advice/consultation from a professional, and providerdirected treatments. Objective: This paper provides a framework of a spectrum that includes person-centered health education options (conceptual endpoint), patient and caregiver-centered mental health care interventions (evidence-based literature review), and more formal provider-directed treatments (conceptual endpoint). Methods: The evidence-based literature review was focused on treatment studies, using a minimum of three key words and the 1996-2015 period, resulting in 13,612 articles. This was reduced to 388 (title words used), to 125 (abstracts for methods, design, and outcomes) and 40 (evidence-based criteria of guidelines). Results: Technology is frequently used, is readily accessible and satisfies persons, patients, and caregivers. Its impact on openness to engage with others and begin self-care appears very positive; its ability to help people change behaviors and engage additional clinical services appears modest, though this is inadequately evaluated. Formal treatments over the Internet, asynchronous care models, or traditional video-based synchronous services are as good as or better than in-person services, though an incomplete range of services has been evaluated. Relatively few treatment studies assess outcomes, compare in-person and e-MentalHealth care, and or compare technology-based care options to one another; hybrid models of care have emerged, but have rarely been studied. Conclusions: For persons or patients not in care, use of the internet for common, non-acute problems appears to work, though a one-time clinical evaluation may help them place options in context. Clinicians and patients should specifically plan how to use technology and exercise sound judgment, based on guidelines when available. More research is needed on the application of new technologies to clinical care, with randomized trials and health services studies for effectiveness suggested.