Technological and digital interventions for mental health and wellbeing: an overview of systematic reviews
With hundreds of individual studies on digital mental health published each year, keeping up is impossible without structured overviews. This umbrella review synthesises systematic reviews across a wide range of digital mental health interventions and populations, giving a high-level picture of what works, for whom, and where the evidence is still thin. An essential reference for researchers, policy makers, and educators in this field.
Abstract
Background
Research increasingly shows how selective and targeted use of technology within care and welfare can have several advantages including improved quality of care and active user involvement.
Purpose
The current overview of reviews aims to summarize the research on the effectiveness of technology for mental health and wellbeing. The goal is to highlight and structure the diverse combinations of technologies and interventions used so far, rather than to summarize the effectiveness of singular approaches.
Methods
The current overview includes reviews published in the past five years with a focus on effectiveness of digital and technological interventions targeting mental health and wellbeing.
Results
A total of 246 reviews could be included. All reviews examined the effectiveness of digital and technological interventions in the context of care and welfare. A combination of two taxonomies was created through qualitative analysis, based on the retrieved interventions and technologies in the reviews. Review classification shows a predominance of reviews on psychotherapeutic interventions using computers and smartphones. It is furthermore shown that when smartphone applications as stand-alone technology are researched, the primary focus is on self-help, and that extended reality is the most researched emerging technology to date.
Conclusion
This overview of reviews shows that a wide range of interventions and technologies, with varying focus and target populations, have been studied in the field of care and wellbeing. The current overview of reviews is a first step to add structure to this rapidly changing field and may guide both researchers and clinicians in further exploring the evidence-base of particular approaches.
Keywords: digital mental health, systematic review, overview, wellbeing, technology interventions
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Reference
De Witte, N. A. J., Joris, S., Van Assche, E., & Van Daele, T. (2021). Technological and digital interventions for mental health and wellbeing: an overview of systematic reviews. Frontiers in Digital Health, 3, 754337. https://doi.org/10.3389/fdgth.2021.754337