Digital Mental Health - Hype, hope, and the real world

Traditionally psychotherapy is delivered face-to-face, but digital mental health interventions have been gaining in popularity, also-but not only-driven by the most recent health pandemic. This is particularly true for so called internet-based or mobile self-help interventions (IMI) and mental health apps, which are now available for various mental health conditions, including depression. Correspondingly, the number of RCTs evaluating the clinical effects of IMI has grown exponentially during, and cumulative evidence seems to suggest that IMI produce similar outcomes as traditional face-to-face therapy. This webinar will first provide a brief snapshot of the current digital mental health landscape. Focusing on depression, some of the advantages and potentials of digital interventions for the delivery of mental health services will be discussed. Finally, by taking a bird’s eyes view the current state of evidence will be reviewed and its’ real-world implications will be discussed. It is concluded that, after an initial hype and hundreds of studies conducted over the last two decades, the evidence is less conclusive than one might expect, and increased implementation efforts are required to fully realize the potentials of digital interventions.