INTRODUCTION:
An outbreak of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) occurred at the end of 2019. Since then, COVID-19 has spread rapidly throughout the world. Mortality rates appeared to be about 2%, with an additional 15%–20% requiring hospitalization. Currently, treatment is mainly supportive. The virus is highly contagious and therefore can spread rapidly.
The COVID-19 crisis is multidimensional, with impacts across functional dimensions, including emotionally, economically, physically, psychologically, and socially. Although anxiety and fear should be normalized during this time, it is still essential to understand how these can be exacerbated due to uncertainty, social distancing, and economic downfall (Sullivan et al., 2020). A significant concern is that during the current pandemic, the mentioned exacerbations and limited access to care may worsen psychiatric illnesses. Furthermore, quarantine can mean losing freedom, separation from loved ones, and uncertainty regarding health status. Various studies suggest that when individuals are in social isolation or quarantined for different purposes, the psychological impact would be substantial, wide-ranging, and long-lasting. These concerns may have considerable effects on mental health status (Brooks et al., 2020; Xian get AL., 2020) for both patients and health care providers (Ma, et al., 2020). Moreover, social isolation and loneliness are linked to worsening depression and anxiety and a significantly increased risk of hospitalization (Stephenson, 2020). However, with the help of telemedicine, this burden could be reduced because of its convenience during this pandemic situation (Zhou et al., 2020).
Telehealth, defined as the delivery of psychological and mental health services via telecommunication technologies, has been previously described as the next big frontier in the efficient and effective delivery of health care (Darker et al., 2019). Its modalities include videoconferencing, telephone-delivered therapy, internet-delivered programs, and mental health apps (Nelson et al., 2011). The advantages of telemedicine in the current pandemic situation have been discussed with several controversies. Telemedicine can support health administration, long-distance clinical care, and education. The patients seeking care for depression and anxiety could be assisted without visiting a hospital. Without the typical face-to-face visit with the doctor, therapy for psychological stabilization could be provided. Moreover, telemedicine can reduce the loss of follow-up among psychiatric patients, and by reducing the number of clinic visits for medicines and periodical discussions among the geriatric populace with mental ailments, telemedicine can also possibly decrease the number of secondary or tertiary diseases (HAC, et al., 2020).
On the other hand, its execution has several challenges, including a breakdown in the relationship between health professionals, issues about the quality of health information data, and bureaucratic and organizational challenges (Helm, 2005). Also, there are several ethical and legal issues related to the practice of these telehealth services, like informed consent and autonomy, patient privacy and confidentiality, data protection and security, equity of access, etc., (Soleimani et al., 2021). So there are limited data regarding the efficacy of telemedicine for the treatment of mental disorders during the COVID-19 pandemic. Therefore, this systematic review aims to investigate the association of telemedicine and the improvement of mental health problems.
METHODS:
This systematic review conforms to the “Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses” (PRISM A) statement (Institute, 2017)
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