In many public and private mental health services, the possibility of remote services is now widely envisaged, even if there is not yet a dedicated and certified tool at national level
I’ve read that online therapy has been authorized in England to treat anxiety or depression: what do you think? Will it also arrive in Italy?
He answers Giancarlo Cerveridirector of the Complex Operational Unit of Psychiatry, ASST of Lodi (GO TO THE FORUM)
To answer your question, which arises from the news of what happened in Englandit is necessary to make a broad reflection on the theme of
telemedicine applied to psychiatry. For some time now, remote medical services have become something of a routine in various specialties. For routine radiologists to remotely report exam results such as CAT scans and MRIs. Some surgeries were performed via remote controls. For psychiatry something like this happened with the ability to carry out remote video consultations. The use of internet-connected technologies had created the conditions for realizing it, the need to reduce contacts during the Covid pandemic created the opportunity for an unprecedented acceleration in this direction.
In many public and private mental health services, the possibility of providing services remotely is now widely envisaged, even if there is still no dedicated and nationally certified tool that assures doctor and patient about the need for privacy and ease of use. Added to this a lack of experience which does not yet allow us to establish with certainty which services can be transferred remotely in safety and which ones are preferable to keep in presence. All these doubts represent only a small aspect of the change we face: today they are coming new tools aimed at making treatments more effective through the use of applications. These provide those who use them with cognitive behavioral intervention tools that improve the final result of the treatment and reduce the direct commitment of healthcare personnel.
They are applications that are downloaded or used via computer, they predict the execution of cognitive strengthening courses you hate changing behaviors of daily life which end up contributing, together with other more traditional interventions, to the achievement of a picture of remission. Following their effectiveness, demonstrated according to evidence-based medicine criteria, the English regulatory body has given authorization for use in the health service. That is, they can be prescribed by the doctor for those suffering from depressive or anxiety disorders and paid for with public money, as is now the case for a drug prescription. In the United States something like this has already happened through what is called a process gamificationi.e. a game (game) is used as a cure and if it works it is prescribed.
It so happened that a computer game proved effective in improving attention in children with ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder) and as such it became prescribable for those who had broad enough health insurance (there is an insurance system in the US that pays for health benefits). In conclusion, to answer his question, telepsychiatry has already arrived, new ways of healing are present; one of the applications approved by the English service already exists in the Italian version. The effectiveness of these tools for some specific indications is indisputable, so only a matter of time, ways and economic availability of our health serviceto make these treatment opportunities active in Italy as well.
May 27, 2023 (change May 27, 2023 | 08:15 am)
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