The imperative to increase healthcare access, efficiency and effectiveness is nearly impossible to meet without reliance on technology. Telemedicine tools now include video, e-mail, text messaging, apps, and other mobile health modalities, deployed synchronously, asynchronously and in hybrid combinations to offer assessment, consultation, direct treatment, and integrated care. Within telemedicine, mental health is particularly well suited to technology platforms due to several inherent factors: provider shortages that are often more acute than in other specialties; the relatively reduced need for laboratory tests, imaging studies and physical examinations; the stigma still attached to mental illness; and diagnosis-specific obstacles that can complicate in person visits (e.g., pronounced fear in social anxiety disorder). The need to increase access, efficiency and effectiveness, combined with the relative ease of translating mental health interventions to technology-mediated delivery, have led researchers to explore various platforms, including: computerized cognitive behavioral therapy; online psychotherapy and online psychopharmacology; mobile therapy; virtual/augmented reality exposure therapy; serious games; and artificial intelligence. Yet, despite often positive efficacy data and an ever more technology-reliant lifestyle, the reach of telemental health remains relatively limited |