The DOI matches its Crossref record; 230 of the 230 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
The growing field of digital psychiatry: current evidence and the future of apps, social media, chatbots, and virtual reality
Open accessAbstract
As the COVID‐19 pandemic has largely increased the utilization of telehealth, mobile mental health technologies – such as smartphone apps, virtual 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 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. Second, we review the current evidence for the use of these new technological approaches across different mental health contexts, covering their emerging efficacy in self‐management of psychological well‐being and early intervention, along with more nascent research supporting their use in clinical management of long‐term psychiatric conditions – including major depression; anxiety, bipolar and psychotic disorders; and eating and substance use disorders – as well as in child and adolescent mental health care. Third, we discuss the most pressing challenges and opportunities towards real‐world implementation, using the Integrated Promoting Action on Research Implementation in Health Services (i‐PARIHS) framework to explain how the innovations themselves, the recipients of these innovations, and the context surrounding innovations all must be considered to facilitate their adoption and use in mental health care systems. We conclude that the new technological capabilities of smartphones, artificial intelligence, social media and virtual reality are already changing mental health care in unforeseen and exciting ways, each accompanied by an early but promising evidence base. We point out that further efforts towards strengthening implementation are needed, and detail the key issues at the patient, provider and policy levels which must now be addressed for digital health technologies to truly improve mental health research and treatment in the future.
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“In particular, widespread access to technology has not been accompanied by sufficient mental health advocacy, leaving the detrimental effects of technological exposure unaddressed [49].”
From SAFEvR MentalVeRse.app: Development of a Free Immersive Virtual Reality Exposure Therapy for Acrophobia and Claustrophobia (2024) · cites this paper as [49]
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“Mobile health interventions, such as smartphone applications and text messaging, are commonly used to target a wide range of health behaviors in adults and rep resent a rapidly growing area among youth 290 .”
From Substance use disorders: a comprehensive update of classification, epidemiology, neurobiology, clinical aspects, treatment and prevention (2023) · cites this paper as [290]
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“Virtual reality (VR) is an emerging technology with the potential to transform mental health treatment [1-3].”
From A Virtual Reality–Based Cognitive Defusion Application for Youth Depression and Anxiety: Mixed Methods Experimental Study. (2025) · cites this paper as [3]
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“Digital mental health interventions have the potential to decrease barriers to mental health treatment.185”
From Digital Ecosystems, Children, and Adolescents: Technical Report (2026) · cites this paper as [185]
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“Research into problem gaming has advanced particularly in the areas of epidemiology, neurobiology and interventions, and has also stimulated scientific interest in problematic engagement in other online activities (e.g., social networking sites, Internet pornography use, and ecommerce) 213,214 .”
From Emerging experience with selected new categories in the ICD‐11: complex PTSD, prolonged grief disorder, gaming disorder, and compulsive sexual behaviour disorder (2022) · cites this paper as [214]
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“Moreover, analysis of text messages on social media, in combination with machine and deep-learning techniques, may provide novel ways of identifying emerging mental disorders [131].”
From Towards a youth mental health paradigm: a perspective and roadmap (2023) · cites this paper as [131]
In the citing paper
“User‐facing apps coupled with assistance from coaches, and other telepsychiatry tools, can help address the treatment gap, but barriers related to culture, policy and funding issues remain195, 238.”
From Mental health care for older adults: recent advances and new directions in clinical practice and research (2022) · cites this paper as [238]
In the citing paper
“An increasing number of CAIs have emerged in recent years, as the digital medical and mobile health fields have grown [26], solving and improving a larger range of mental health issues in addition to depression and anxiety.”
From Conversational Agent Interventions for Mental Health Problems: Systematic Review and Meta-analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials (2023) · cites this paper as [26]
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“Nonadherence to ADTs is associated with increased severity of depressive symptoms, risk of relapse (ie, early return of symptoms within the expected duration of a current episode) and recurrence (ie, a new major depressive episode following a full-episode remission), and healthcare resource utilization, as well as significantly higher”
From Digital health technologies and major depressive disorder (2023) · cites this paper as [43]
In the citing paper
“With the widespread, everyday use of smartphones, these emerging digital tools could function as efficient, widely available mental health resources for orthopedic clinicians to offer their patients [16,20-22].”
From A Digital Mental Health Intervention in an Orthopedic Setting for Patients With Symptoms of Depression and/or Anxiety: Feasibility Prospective Cohort Study (2022) · cites this paper as [22]
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Will digital technology address the challenges of drug development in psychiatry?
Kishimoto, T. (2023) · World Psychiatry · doi:10.1002/wps.21063 · Cited by 4
Caldirola, D., Daccò, S., Grassi, M., Alciati, A., Sbabo, W. M., Donatis, D. D., Martinotti, G., Berardis, D. D., & Perna, G. (2023) · Brain Sciences · doi:10.3390/brainsci13030502 · Cited by 5
“Advances in machine-learning techniques can enable patterns to be more easily detected or offer predictive models from large and highly composite data samples [19,20].”
BackgroundUSAHA GURU MENGURANGI KECEMASAN BELAJAR SISWA DALAM PEMBELAJARAN PAI
Warsah, I., Carles, E., Morganna, R., Anggraini, S., Silvana, S., & Maisaroh, S. (2023) · At-Ta dib Jurnal Ilmiah Prodi Pendidikan Agama Islam · doi:10.47498/tadib.v15i1.1763 · Cited by 3
Hamlin, M., Holmén, J., Wentz, E., Aiff, H., Ali, L., & Steingrímsson, S. (2023) · JMIR Mental Health · doi:10.2196/48843 · Cited by 3
“However, it is important to develop sustainable systems suitable for both the health care provider and patient needs, while, at the same time, complying with existing regulations [12].”
BackgroundD’Adamo, L., Grammer, A. C., Rackoff, G. N., Fitzsimmons‐Craft, E. E., Lipson, S. K., Newman, M. G., Taylor, C. B., Eisenberg, D., & Wilfley, D. E. (2023) · International Journal of Eating Disorders · doi:10.1002/eat.24065 · Cited by 6
Acharya, B., Sigdel, K., Khatri, R., Rimal, P., Shrestha, S., Sharma, D., Shrestha, J., & Sapkota, S. (2024) · Journal of Technology in Behavioral Science · doi:10.1007/s41347-024-00389-8 · Cited by 3
“Digital tools have immense potential to expand the reach of such services, increasing access to treatments for people in need (Smith et al., 2023; Torous et al., 2021).”
Visions for digital integrated cardiovascular care: HRS Digital Health Committee perspectives
Narayan, S. M., Wan, E. Y., Andrade, J. G., Silva, J. N. A., Bhatia, N. K., Deneke, T., Deshmukh, A. J., Chon, K. H., Erickson, L. A., Ghanbari, H., et al. (2024) · Cardiovascular Digital Health Journal · doi:10.1016/j.cvdhj.2024.02.003 · Cited by 3
Murthy, S. V. N., Ramesh, P. S., Padmaja, P., Lal, B., Reddy, G. J., & Chinthamu, N. (2024) · Entertainment Computing · doi:10.1016/j.entcom.2024.100659 · Cited by 4
Kessing, L. V., Tønning, M. L., Busk, J., Rohani, D. A., Frost, M. M., Bardram, J. E., & Faurholt‐Jepsen, M. (2024) · Nordic Journal of Psychiatry · doi:10.1080/08039488.2024.2369179 · Cited by 5
Self-citationEmbodied Cognition in the Clinic
Gallagher, S., & Hutto, D. D. (2024) · Springer eBooks · doi:10.1007/978-3-031-38391-5_8 · Cited by 5
Yang, M., Zhu, X., Yan, F., Huang, X., Wu, Z., Jiang, X., Huang, Y., & Li, Z. (2025) · BMC Medical Informatics and Decision Making · doi:10.1186/s12911-024-02809-4 · Cited by 4
Ball, H., Eisner, E., Ainsworth, J. D., Bagg, E., Beattie, L., Cella, M., Chalmers, N., Clifford, S., Drake, R., Faulkner, S., et al. (2025) · Schizophrenia Bulletin · doi:10.1093/schbul/sbaf043 · Cited by 6
“15 Collated data can be analyzed using machine-learning methods, which involve algorithms that detect patterns and make predictions from highly characterized datasets.”
Self-citationGupta, P., Sharma, M., & Joshi, S. (2025) · IGI Global eBooks · doi:10.4018/979-8-3373-5087-5.ch010 · Cited by 3
Bucci, S., Zhang, X.-L., Basilio, D. D., Richardson, C., Berry, N., Berry, K., Edge, D., & Haddock, G. (2025) · BMC Psychiatry · doi:10.1186/s12888-025-07071-0 · Cited by 3
“Recent studies showed that apps have the potential to enhance current care pathways providing an easily accessible, engaging addition to traditional interventions [4, 5], and can serve as stand-alone tools to inform prevention and early intervention for psychosis [6–8].”
Self-citationDatta, R., Vishwanath, R., & Shenoy, S. (2022) · The Egyptian Journal of Neurology Psychiatry and Neurosurgery · doi:10.1186/s41983-022-00574-7 · Cited by 5
“Some of the stigma associated with seeking mental health interventions is reduced in the face of more privacy using video-calling features that are available in app-based mental health services [68].”
BackgroundDhunnoo, P., Wetzlmair-Kephart, L.-C., & O’Carroll, V. (2022) · Research Square · doi:10.21203/rs.3.rs-2330671/v1 · Cited by 3
Jia, X. Z., Xu, J., Xu, Y., Li, H., Peng, S., & Zhao, B. (2023) · Forests · doi:10.3390/f15010083 · Cited by 3
“Numerous scholars have predicted the myriad application prospects of virtual technology in psycho-therapy [23–25].”
BackgroundJoung, J., & Kang, K. I. (2024) · Issues in Mental Health Nursing · doi:10.1080/01612840.2024.2326476 · Cited by 2
“…such as using the PRCs to promote participation in verified alternatives to drinking (Joung & Kang, 2019), and using digital technology such as smartphone applications to monitor daily moods, activities, and drinking (Cohn et al., 2011; Torous et al., 2021) seem to help in maintaining recovery.”
Stocker, A., Navarro, N., Schmitt, L., Delagnes, M., Doualle, A., Mallard, V., Entajan, F., Guivarc’h, K., Masse, P., Chaigneau, L., et al. (2024) · Addiction Science & Clinical Practice · doi:10.1186/s13722-024-00500-7 · Cited by 2
“Although these elements are heterogeneous in their effect and need to be tailored to target populations to remain relevant [45], they are more and more implemented in eHealth interventions for SUD [46].”
BackgroundEhlis, A., Aas, B., Kieckhäfer, C., Schiepek, G. K., Rosenbaum, D., Theisen, C., Fallgatter, A. J., & Goldbeck, F. (2024) · Applied Psychology Health and Well-Being · doi:10.1111/aphw.12603 · Cited by 2
“…current developments in the field of “ digital psychiatry ” , with increased utilization of mobile (e.g., app-based) mental health technologies (Torous et al., 2021), public health strategies during pandemics may in the future comprise the systematic rollout of low-threshold online…”
Technology as a driving force of service delivery in the King Sabata Dalindyebo Local Municipality
Ntando, Y., & Mofolo, M. A. (2024) · International Journal of Business Ecosystem and Strategy (2687-2293) · doi:10.36096/ijbes.v6i6.626 · Cited by 4
Zheng, J., & Chen, J. (2025) · International Theory and Practice in Humanities and Social Sciences · doi:10.70693/itphss.v2i2.202 · Cited by 2
Zhao, T., Tang, C., Ma, J., Yan, H., Su, X., Zhong, X., & Wang, H. (2025) · Journal of Medical Internet Research · doi:10.2196/56289 · Cited by 2
“Taken together, eHealth has enormous potential to support the self-management of depressive symptoms in people living with HIV [13,20].”
Putica, A., Yurtbasi, M., & Khanna, R. (2025) · AI & Society · doi:10.1007/s00146-025-02336-4 · Cited by 5
“Understanding and effectively addressing these participant-related challenges is essential for developing computational models that can meaningfully advance psychiatric care while ensuring equitable benefits across different patient populations (Lee et al. 2021; Torous et al. 2021).”
Borgnolo, L. J., McKenna, S., Hickie, I. B., Varidel, M., Turner, A., Gorban, C., LaMonica, H. M., Chong, M. K., Capon, W., Dimitropoulos, G., et al. (2025) · Journal of Medical Internet Research · doi:10.2196/67597 · Cited by 3
“Innovations such as mobile apps, telemedicine platforms, and web-based therapy have widened the availability of mental health resources and services [1], making support more convenient and readily available to individuals, particularly for those in remote regions or those reluctant to otherwise…”
Sama, K., Sreevalsan‐Nair, J., Choudhary, S., Nagendra, S., Reddy, P. V., Cohen, A., Mehta, U. M., & Torous, J. B. (2025) · JMIR Formative Research · doi:10.2196/70073 · Cited by 2
“Despite the well-known potential of digital mental health to advance psychiatric care, a lack of clinical integration has hampered meaningful use [1].”
Self-citationSkoge, M., Aminoff, S. R., Barrett, E. A., Bryhni, G. E., Kling, K., Kværner, K. J., Melle, I. S., Mork, E., Simonsen, C., Støme, L. N., et al. (2025) · JMIR Human Factors · doi:10.2196/68813 · Cited by 2
“In addition, this functionality can reduce the demands on memory and help users convey relevant information during therapy sessions [35,36].”
Robson, E., & Greenwood, K. (2025) · Early Intervention in Psychiatry · doi:10.1111/eip.70055 · Cited by 1
“However, the implementation of digital interventions into routine practice is challenging (Greenhalgh and Abimbola 2019; Torous et al. 2021), and one key component is the perceptions and attitudes of clinical staff (Ajzen 2012; Finch et al. 2018; Corrigan et al. 2001).”
Smartphone Apps for Problematic Pornography Use: A Review of Content and Quality
Hart-Derrick, V. R., Virani, S., Zadeh, O., Genovese, N., Engel, J., Martinez, C. C. P., Potenza, M. N., & McCurdy, L. Y. (2025) · Current Addiction Reports · doi:10.1007/s40429-025-00669-0 · Cited by 2
“Sustaining engagement with digital health tools can be difficult [ 39].”
Maksum, A., Marini, A., Kurnianti, E. M., Chen, Y., Safitri, D., Dewiyani, L., Zahari, M., Julia, V., Saputro, R. H., Muharrani, N. P., et al. (2025) · Social Sciences & Humanities Open · doi:10.1016/j.ssaho.2025.101795 · Cited by 13
Research on the impact of digital anxiety management tools on athletes' well-being
Kuang, G., Liu, Z., & Zhi, Z. (2025) · Acta Psychologica · doi:10.1016/j.actpsy.2025.105368 · Cited by 3
Yıldız, E., & Harmancı, P. (2025) · Issues in Mental Health Nursing · doi:10.1080/01612840.2025.2531543 · Cited by 2
“This reflects geographical inequalities in digital health research at a global scale which may limit the generalizability of some findings to diverse clinical contexts (Torous et al., 2021; World Health Organization, 2021, 2023).”
Gamified interventions for schizophrenia rehabilitation: A systematic scoping review
Yang, H., Chang, F., Zhu, D., Muroi, F., Liu, Z., Zhang, W., & Cai, J. (2025) · Clinical Psychology Review · doi:10.1016/j.cpr.2025.102651 · Cited by 4
Risks of digitalization in mental health care
Volpe, U., Ramalho, R., & Gäebel, W. (2025) · Neuropsychiatrie · doi:10.1007/s40211-025-00551-5 · Cited by 2
Williams, J. M., Heath, C., Leightley, D., Murphy, D., & Dymond, S. (2025) · Journal of Contextual Behavioral Science · doi:10.1016/j.jcbs.2025.100956 · Cited by 2
Lee, C., Joung, E., Koh, Y., Kim, E., Son, S., Kwon, S., & Lee, U. (2025) · Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction · doi:10.1145/3757533 · Cited by 2
“To address the issue of accessibility, various digital mental health interventions (DMHIs) using mobile applications and conversational agents have been actively developed for mental health care [42, 45, 115].”
Zhu, H., Ma, M., Sansoy, H., Butcher, I., Bisal, N., & Bhui, K. S. (2025) · Lecture notes in computer science · doi:10.1007/978-3-032-10518-9_32 · Cited by 2
Sörman, K., Alaoui, S. E., Mårtensson, S. K., Larsson, M., Knez, R., Ljudvåg, M., Mac, R., Dahlström, K., Nowak, Y. E., Fors, U., et al. (2025) · BMC Medical Education · doi:10.1186/s12909-025-08413-y · Cited by 2
Riaz, M. M. A., Abrar, T., Hammad, M., Tariq, H., Fatima, R., Siddique, I., & Nawaz, F. A. (2026) · Exploration of Digital Health Technologies · doi:10.37349/edht.2026.101179 · Cited by 2
Case-Based Lessons on Remote Patient Monitoring in Neurology Using Consumer-Grade Wearables
Epping, P. H., Hagler, R., Werner, N. M., Voth, J., Schmidt, L., Huntemann, N., Stern, A. D., Ruck, T., Meuth, S. G., Pawlitzki, M., et al. (2026) · Journal of Central Nervous System Disease · doi:10.1177/11795735261419641 · Cited by 2
Metadata
- Authors
- Torous, J., Bucci, S., Bell, I. H., Kessing, L. V., Faurholt‐Jepsen, M., Whelan, P., Carvalho, A. F., Keshavan, M., Linardon, J., & Firth, J.
- Affiliations
- Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (US)
- Greater Manchester Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust (GB)
- The University of Melbourne (AU)
- Rigshospitalet (DK)
- Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CA)
- Deakin University (AU)
- University of Manchester (GB)
- ORCID
- Venue
- World Psychiatry
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Published
- 2021-09-09
- Volume
- 20
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 318-335
- ISSN
- 1723-8617 (ISSN-L)
- 2051-5545
- PMC
- PMC8429349
- OpenAlex
- W3197232629
- Cited by
- 1,199
- References
- 227
- Citations by year
- 2026: 314 · 2025: 328 · 2024: 236 · 2023: 206 · 2022: 106 · 2021: 9
- FWCI
- 123.69
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- World Psychiatry (publishedVersion)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
- Research at the University of Copenhagen (University of Copenhagen) (publishedVersion, other-oa)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Deakin Research Online (Deakin University) (submittedVersion)
- Figshare (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- Research Explorer (The University of Manchester) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- Funders
- American Psychiatric Association Foundation
- UK Research and Innovation (P123958)
- National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR300794)
- National Institute of Mental Health (K23MH116130)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Applied Psychology › Digital Mental Health Interventions
- Health Sciences › Health Professions › General Health Professions › Mobile Health and mHealth Applications
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Telemedicine and Telehealth Implementation
- Keywords
- digital psychiatry, mental health apps, virtual reality, chatbots, social media, digital phenotyping, artificial intelligence, telemedicine, remote intervention, i-PARIHS framework, implementation research, major depressive disorder, anxiety disorders, bipolar disorder, psychosis, eating disorders, substance use disorders, child and adolescent mental health, early intervention
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