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Health·G Space·Evidence-backed gain·Published 2026-07-12

The growing field of digital psychiatry: current evidence and the future of apps, social media, chatbots, and virtual reality

As the COVID-19 pandemic has largely increased the utilization of telehealth, mobile mental health technologies - such as smartphone apps, vir-tual reality, chatbots, and social media - have also gained attention. These digital health technologies offer the potential of accessible and scalable interventions that can augment traditional care. In this paper, we provide a comprehensive update on the overall field of digital psychiatry, covering three areas. First, we outline the relevance of recent technological ad…

TRV-2026-0064Peer-reviewedPermanent record — cite & verify
The growing field of digital psychiatry: current evidence and the future of apps, social media, chatbots, and virtual reality

"Tomy Chatbot" by Latente 囧 www.latente.it is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0. To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/.

The quick read

As the COVID-19 pandemic has largely increased the utilization of telehealth, mobile mental health technologies - such as smartphone apps, vir-tual reality, chatbots, and social media - have also gained attention. These digital health technologies offer the potential of accessible and scalable interventions that can augment traditional care.

First, we outline the relevance of recent technological advances to mental health research and care, by detailing how smartphones, social media, artificial intelligence and virtual reality present new opportunities for "digital phenotyping" and remote intervention.

Main points
  • As the COVID-19 pandemic has largely increased the utilization of telehealth, mobile mental health technologies - such as smartphone apps, vir-tual reality, chatbots, and social media - have also gained attention.
  • These digital health technologies offer the potential of accessible and scalable interventions that can augment traditional care.
  • In this paper, we provide a comprehensive update on the overall field of digital psychiatry, covering three areas.
Gain

The growing field of digital psychiatry: current evidence and the future of apps, social media, chatbots, and virtual reality: As the COVID-19 pandemic has largely increased the utilization of telehealth, mobile mental health technologies - such as smartphone apps, vir-tual reality, chatbots, and social media - have also gained attention.

The rundown

In this paper, we provide a comprehensive update on the overall field of digital psychiatry, covering three areas. First, we outline the relevance of recent technological advances to mental health research and care, by detailing how smartphones, social media, artificial intelligence and virtual reality present new opportunities for "digital phenotyping" and remote intervention.

Sources

The debate