Fortschritte Der Neurologie Psychiatrie最新文献

Telepsychiatry is shifting the focus of psychiatry and psychotherapy from personal interaction and relationship building to communication with technological mediators in the form of telecommunication, virtual reality (VR), social robots or artificial intelligence (AI). This article discusses the opportunities and risks of new technologies in psychiatric treatment, taking into account the principles of medical ethics. Telepsychiatric treatments can promote self-determination in the home environment as opposed to institutionalisation but carry the risk of uncontrolled data sharing. They harbour risks of potential harm such as social isolation, negative effects on the doctor-patient relationship and long-term changes in patient behaviour through, for example, VR. In terms of justice, demographic and psychopathological factors could result in unequal access to telepsychiatry, with questionable sustainability effects. The anonymity of telepsychiatry threatens alienation, while moral considerations cannot be replaced by AI for the time being. It is obligatory to carefully weigh up the benefits and risks of telepsychiatry, but especially in rural areas they could optimise care.Precisely because of ethical concerns, further intensive research is necessary to weigh up the risks and benefits. The development of telepsychiatric systems requires transdisciplinary co-operation. At a societal level, the significance of technologies as a supplement or replacement for the doctor-patient relationship needs to be discussed.

Objective: A telephone-based health program for people with depressive and anxiety disorders as well as stress, already implemented in the standard care of a private health insurance company, as well as the initial evaluation results will be presented.

Methods: The program, based on several months of telephone support for patients from medical professionals, focuses on teaching psychoeducational content, behavioral therapy techniques, and emotional support. In the current program, the German version of the DASS 21 questionnaire was used, which detects distress in the dimensions of depression, anxiety and stress as well as overall psychological stress. The demographic data and the questionnaire results of all participants from the first eleven months of the program, who completed questionnaires at two time points, are presented. The reductions in the DASS 21 (sub)scores after five months of coaching were defined as the primary endpoints. The basis for calculation was the t-test for dependent samples (α=0.05).

Results: Two completed questionnaires were available from 86 of 199 participants (43.2%). The population was on average 49.5 years old and predominantly female (61.6%). In total, coaching lasted 170 (SD=58) days and 200 (81) minutes. On average, these minutes were distributed over 5.6 (1.9) calls. At baseline, there were increased scores in all subcategories (depression: 7.13 [4.99]; anxiety: 4.49 [4.07]; stress: 9.85 [4.16]; total: 21.47 [11.54]). After five months, a reduction in each parameter was measured (depression: - 2.14 [3.99], Cohen's d=0.54; anxiety: - 1.65 [3.36], d=0.49; stress: - 2.24 [4.81], d=0.47; total: - 6.03 [10.70]; d=0.56; p < 0.001 for each). Broken down by severity of stress at the start of care, several subcategories showed an increase in score reduction with increasing severity, with medium to large effect sizes.

Conclusion: The telephone program described is promising as an accompanying approach to treatment of mental illness. Due to the pre-post study design, the results presented do not allow a final statement to be made about the effectiveness of the program. However, based on the significant improvements in psychological stress shown over the course of the program, including relevant effect sizes, a further evaluation of this setting under controlled conditions is recommended.