The integration of digital health technologies has transformed mental healthcare, particularly for young adults with First-Episode Psychosis (FEP). Digital interventions, such as telepsychiatry and mobile applications, address barriers like social stigma, restricted access to services, and the urgency of timely care.

A systematic literature review was conducted using PubMed and APA PsycINFO. Included studies focused on randomized controlled trials, cohort studies, and open studies of digital interventions for FEP rehabilitation. Exclusion criteria included meta-analyses, reviews, and irrelevant studies.

Smartphone applications like Horyzons-Canada facilitated peer support and symptom management, while tools such as My Journey 3 emphasized the need for better user engagement. Digital innovations, including Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) and telepsychiatry, demonstrated improvements in recovery and treatment adherence.

Digital interventions significantly enhance the accessibility and quality of FEP care, supporting functional recovery and patient engagement. Future research should prioritize longitudinal studies, user engagement strategies, and advanced analytics to develop personalized, scalable solutions.

With the gradual end of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, the reconstruction of students' mental health is urgently necessary. Digital interventions offer advantages such as high accessibility, anonymity, and accurate identification, which can promote the reconstruction of students' mental health through the provision of psychological support platforms, psychological assessment tools, and online mental health activities. However, we recognize that digital interventions must undergo many adjustments, and corresponding ethical norms require further clarification. It is crucial for different stakeholders to collaborate and work toward maximizing the effectiveness of digital interventions for the reconstruction of mental health after the COVID-19 pandemic.

Digital technologies have been used to support mental health services for two decades, but the COVID-19 pandemic created a particular opportunity for greater utilization and more data-driven assessment of these digital technologies. This research aims to offer a scoping review of the characteristics and effectiveness of digital interventions that were employed to improve mental health in the real context of COVID-19 pandemic. A combination of search terms was applied for automatic search of publications in the relevant databases. The key features of included studies were extracted, including the intervention, participant, and study details. A total of 20 eligible studies were included in the final review, which were conducted across different geographic regions and among diverse cultural groups. Among them, fourteen studies mainly reported the impact of digital technologies on general population, while only one published study developed specific interventions for the isolated COVID-19 depressed patients in hospitals. Digital technologies identified in this review were mainly developed via web-based and mobile-based platforms, such as social networking and video conferencing applications. But less than half of them were aligned with theoretical approaches from standardized psychological treatments. Most of the studies have reported positive effects of digital technologies, either on improving general mental and emotional well-being or addressing specific conditions (e.g., depression, stress, and anxiety). This scoping review suggests that digital technologies hold promise in bridging the mental health-care gap during and after the COVID-19 pandemic, and calls for more rigorous studies to identify pertinent features that are likely to achieve more effective mental health outcomes.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, in-person psychiatric care decreased, but mental disorders, such as post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety, depression, obsessive compulsive symptoms and insomnia increased. Our objective was to describe the usefulness, advantages, disadvantages and limitations of telemedicine used in psychiatric patients' clinical care before and during the COVID-19 pandemic.

A critical search was carried out on platforms such as PubMed, Cochrane, Lilacs and academic Google, in addition to an in-depth assessment of all the primary studies that answer our questions.

Telepsychiatry is a tool that can help resolve the need for psychiatric care in a more comprehensive way. Advantages include cost reduction, enabling care provision to rural areas, the fact that its effectiveness is comparable to in-person care and its use is suitable in a variety of scenarios, and also that it helps reduce stigma and enables continuous training processes among medical staff. In the context of the current pandemic, it reduces the risk of transmission by maintaining biosecurity measures. However, there are also limitations in its use, such as the collection of medical insurance payments, mandatory in-person visits for examinations or procedures, difficulty in developing a doctor-patient relationship, and uncertainty about how to give informed consent and maintain the patient's privacy. Additionally, there is the difficulty in controlling the patient's environment, with the risk of the consultation taking place somewhere inappropriate, and the fact that there are certain populations which would not benefit from the use of telepsychiatry and areas where its use is made difficult by a greater digital gap. Based on these advantages and disadvantages, recommendations can be made when considering telepsychiatry as a medical care option.

Community mental healthcare around the world has been strained as people need more help and experience more barriers to access due to COVID-19. The rapid shift to telehealth services necessitated by the pandemic has made these difficulties even more pronounced. While this transition presented challenges for nearly every healthcare system, it has proven especially difficult for low resource settings such as community health centers. This article is a critical observational study of the care transformation of a state-funded safety net psychiatric system responding to the clinical needs of patients during the COVID-19 pandemic. By discussing the challenges, opportunities, and creative solutions for staff and patients, the article highlights the new importance of technology and adaptability in clinical care and outlines clear recommendations to ensure vulnerable populations do not fall into the "digital divide."

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a severe and widespread global impact but particularly for those with psychosis. This review summarizes recent evidence on the relationship between the COVID-19 pandemic and psychotic disorders, highlighting the risks faced by these individuals including the negative impacts on treatment services, complications from contracting COVID-19, and the acceptability of digital interventions.

Mortality, morbidity, and infection outcomes are among the worst for individuals with psychotic disorders. Presentation rates for psychotic disorders are elevated at emergency departments compared with before the COVID-19 pandemic; demand for inpatient services has increased, and there have been complications in access because of pandemic restrictions. COVID-19 related stressors have led to the exacerbation and incidence of psychotic symptoms among individuals with and without preexisting psychotic diagnoses. Digital interventions may be an acceptable method for maintaining patient contact and treatment during extended isolation.

More data is needed on the longitudinal trajectory for psychotic symptoms post-COVID-19 infection and pandemic restrictions to better support individuals with psychotic disorders. Development of a long-term pandemic management plan is needed to monitor and support psychiatric health across the population.

Telemedicine via videoconferencing rapidly deployed during the COVID-19 pandemic reduces contact and opportunity for virus transmission, with Quadruple Aim benefits of improved population health and associated cost avoidance of COVID-related illness. Patient experience of telemedicine has generally been positive, but widespread use of videoconferencing outside of healthcare has brought growing recognition of associated mental fatigue. Experience in telepsychiatry shows attending to non-verbal communication and maintaining empathic rapport requires increased mental effort, making provider experience more sensitive to cumulative fatigue effects. Since empathy and therapeutic alliance are foundational to all physician-patient relationships, these telepsychiatry findings have implications for telehealth generally. Health leaders and providers planning for sustainable incorporation of videoconferencing into ongoing healthcare delivery should consider the potential for unintended negative effects on provider experience and burnout.

Gaps in psychiatrists' competence can interfere with the delivery of optimal patient care, particularly when these gaps have not been identified. This study aimed to assess the perceived and unperceived continuing professional development needs of psychiatrists practicing in Quebec, Canada.

The authors sent an online cross-sectional survey (2018) to members of the 'Association des médecins psychiatres du Québec' and collected data on unperceived needs via the critical incident method (focused on managing challenging clinical cases/situations). Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, chi-squared tests, thematic analysis, and triangulation of data. Two coders independently analyzed qualitative data.

Of 1150 eligible psychiatrists, 187 (16%) completed the survey. Over half were female (58%), caring for adult patients (60%), and practiced in a university hospital (49%). Top perceived and unperceived learning need areas were neurodevelopmental disorders and psychopharmacology. Three hundred forty-three factors influencing the management of reported challenges were classified as case complexity (53%), patient (22%), environment (19%), and lack of knowledge (4%). Consultation with colleagues (49%) was the most frequently accessed resource for approaching challenging cases. During the previous year and across both self-directed and group learning activities, respondents reported engaging more frequently in in-person than online activities.

A comprehensive needs assessment integrating perceived and unperceived needs is the cornerstone for planning relevant continuing professional development. The critical incident method is a useful tool to assess psychiatrists' unperceived needs. Critical reflection after solving complex clinical cases might provide an opportunity to optimize psychiatrists' selection of relevant continuing professional development.

Objective: To compare clinical recommendations given by psychiatrists and the adherence to these recommendations by primary care physicians (PCP) following consultations conducted by asynchronous telepsychiatry (ATP) and synchronous telepsychiatry (STP). Materials and Methods: ATP and STP consultations were compared using intermediate data from a randomized clinical trial with adult participant enrollment between April 2014 and December 2017. In both study arms, PCPs received written recommendations from the psychiatrist after each encounter. Independent clinicians reviewed PCP documentation to measure adherence to those recommendations in the 6 months following the baseline consultation. Results: Medical records were reviewed for 645 psychiatrists' consult recommendations; 344 from 61 ATP consultations and 301 from 62 STP consultations. Of those recommendations, 191 (56%) and 173 (58%) were rated fully adherent by two independent raters for ATP and STP, respectively. In a multilevel ordinal logistic regression model adjusted for recommendation type and recommended implementation timing, there was no statistically significant difference in adherence to recommendations for ATP compared with STP (adjusted odds ratio = 0.91, 95% confidence interval = 0.51-1.62). The profiles of recommendation type were comparable between ATP and STP. Conclusions: This is the first PCP adherence study comparing two forms of telemedicine. Although we did not find evidence of a difference between ATP and STP; this study supports the feasibility and acceptability of ATP and STP for the provision of collaborative psychiatric care. Clinical Trial Identifier NCT02084979.