Digital technology and mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic: a narrative review with a focus on depression, anxiety, stress, and trauma.
Paul C Guest, Veronika Vasilevska, Ayoub Al-Hamadi, Julia Eder, Peter Falkai, Johann Steiner
Author Information
Paul C Guest: Department of Psychiatry, Otto-von-Guericke-University Magdeburg, Magdeburg, Germany.
Veronika Vasilevska: Department of Psychiatry, Otto-von-Guericke-University Magdeburg, Magdeburg, Germany.
Ayoub Al-Hamadi: Department of Neuro-Information Technology, Institute for Information Technology and Communications Otto-von-Guericke University Magdeburg, Magdeburg, Germany.
Julia Eder: Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University Hospital Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich, Munich, Germany.
Peter Falkai: Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University Hospital Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich, Munich, Germany.
Johann Steiner: Department of Psychiatry, Otto-von-Guericke-University Magdeburg, Magdeburg, Germany.
The sudden appearance and devastating effects of the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in the need for multiple adaptive changes in societies, business operations and healthcare systems across the world. This review describes the development and increased use of digital technologies such as chat bots, electronic diaries, online questionnaires and even video gameplay to maintain effective treatment standards for individuals with mental health conditions such as depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress syndrome. We describe how these approaches have been applied to help meet the challenges of the pandemic in delivering mental healthcare solutions. The main focus of this narrative review is on describing how these digital platforms have been used in diagnostics, patient monitoring and as a treatment option for the general public, as well as for frontline medical staff suffering with mental health issues.
