Author(s): Syaron Basnet, Manu Tamminen and Tuuli Lahti
Currently, eHealth is widely used in mental health care. Most eHealth services have been developed for mental health care due to its distinctive features such as privacy, accessibility, affordability, acceptability, and cost-efficiency. This review summarizes existing literature on the feasibility of eHealth in mental health care and discusses its pros and cons as a service delivery tool. To conduct a systematic literature search, over 11000 articles were retrieved from PubMed and Medline. The keywords used in eHealth studies are diverse: according to the two databases, eHealth and mHealth are the most common ones. To date, a variety of eHealth applications have been developed for obsessive-compulsive disorders, phobias and other common mental health problems such as depression, anxiety, panic disorder, and generalized anxiety disorder. Both short and long-term positive outcomes have been reported when using these applications. eHealth has potential to overcome the fear of shame, guilt, and stigma, which are common concerns of mental health patients. However, licensing, ethical standards and guidelines for eHealth applications in mental health care is urgently needed as currently the rapid proliferation and commercialization of unproven electronic materials reduce the liability of eHealth services.
