Digital Mental Health for Young People: A Scoping Review of Ethical Promises and Challenges
Open accessAbstract
Mental health disorders are complex disorders of the nervous system characterized by a behavioral or mental pattern that causes significant distress or impairment of personal functioning. Mental illness is of particular concern for younger people. The WHO estimates that around 20% of the world's children and adolescents have a mental health condition, a rate that is almost double compared to the general population. One approach toward mitigating the medical and socio-economic effects of mental health disorders is leveraging the power of digital health technology to deploy assistive, preventative, and therapeutic solutions for people in need. We define “digital mental health” as any application of digital health technology for mental health assessment, support, prevention, and treatment. However, there is only limited evidence that digital mental health tools can be successfully implemented in clinical settings. Authors have pointed to a lack of technical and medical standards for digital mental health apps, personalized neurotechnology, and assistive cognitive technology as a possible cause of suboptimal adoption and implementation in the clinical setting. Further, ethical concerns have been raised related to insufficient effectiveness, lack of adequate clinical validation, and user-centered design as well as data privacy vulnerabilities of current digital mental health products. The aim of this paper is to report on a scoping review we conducted to capture and synthesize the growing literature on the promises and ethical challenges of digital mental health for young people aged 0–25. This review seeks to survey the scope and focus of the relevant literature, identify major benefits and opportunities of ethical significance (e.g., reducing suffering and improving well-being), and provide a comprehensive mapping of the emerging ethical challenges. Our findings provide a comprehensive synthesis of the current literature and offer a detailed informative basis for any stakeholder involved in the development, deployment, and management of ethically-aligned digital mental health solutions for young people.
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Patients' mistrust in data sharing due to privacy concerns and confidentiality breaches may reduce their acceptability of digital health technologies.
“Patients' mistrust in data sharing due to privacy concerns and confidentiality breaches may reduce their acceptability of digital health technologies.”
From Digital health technologies and major depressive disorder (2023) · cites this paper as [146]
Digital health technologies are not equally available to all social groups due to economic, geographical, social, or cultural inequalities.
“Digital health technologies are not equally available to all social groups due to economic, geographical, social, or cultural inequalities.”
From Digital health technologies and major depressive disorder (2023) · cites this paper as [146]
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Digital Mental Health Amid COVID-19
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AI‐based assessments of speech and language impairments in dementia
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Resilience to depression: the role of benevolent childhood experiences in a South African sample
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Exploring Youth Perspectives on Digital Mental Health Platforms: Qualitative Descriptive Study
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Mobile applications in adolescent psychotherapy during the COVID-19 pandemic: a systematic review
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Adolescent-Centric Design of an Online Safety Chatbot
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Designing Chatbots to Treat Depression in Youth: Qualitative Study
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A qualitative exploration of online forums to support resilience of rural young people in Australia
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Students’ Perceptions of Learning Analytics for Mental Health Support: Qualitative Study
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Ethical Considerations Surrounding the Use of AI-Interventions in Application of Mental Healthcare
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Revolutionizing Mental Healthcare Through Artificial Intelligence
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The Impact of Chatbots on Adolescent Mental Health Development: A Comprehensive Literature Review
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“15,16 20 Accessing mental health treatment via digital tools has been reported in the literature to be a facilitator of help-seeking behaviour.”
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A digital positive psychology intervention for college student mental health and health behaviors
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The DID-guide: A guide to developing digital mental health interventions
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Digital Tools to Support Post‐Secondary Student Mental Health and Wellbeing
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Digital psychiatry in Nigeria: A scoping review
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MyTrack+: Human-centered design of an mHealth app to support long-term weight loss maintenance
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Digital Footprints and Machine Learning in Psychological Assessment
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Human-Centered Design and Digital Transformation of Mental Health Services
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Mental healthcare systems research during COVID-19: Lessons for shifting the paradigm post COVID-19
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Addressing the Ethical, Legal, and Social Issues of Healthtech in Education: Insights From Japan
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Digital Literacy as a Catalyst for Sustainable Development
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- Authors
- Wies, B., Landers, C., & Ienca, M.
- Affiliations
- ETH Zurich (CH)
- Corresponding author
- Ienca, Marcello
- ORCID
- Ienca, Marcello
- Venue
- Frontiers in Digital Health
- Publisher
- Frontiers Media SA
- Published
- 2021-09-06
- Volume
- 3
- Pages
- 697072-697072
- ISSN
- 2673-253X (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC8521997
- OpenAlex
- W3198532692
- Cited by
- 242
- References
- 57
- Citations by year
- 2026: 50 · 2025: 80 · 2024: 65 · 2023: 31 · 2022: 15 · 2021: 1
- FWCI
- 4.37
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Frontiers in Digital Health (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, other-oa)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- Repository for Publications and Research Data (ETH Zurich) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- ETH Zürich Research Collection
- Funders
- National Science Foundation
- Schweizerischer Nationalfonds zur Förderung der Wissenschaftlichen Forschung (407740_187356/1, NRP77, 187356, 407740, 40158)
- Innosuisse - Schweizerische Agentur für Innovationsförderung
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Applied Psychology › Digital Mental Health Interventions
- Social Sciences › Safety Research › Ethics and Social Impacts of AI
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neuroethics, Human Enhancement, Biomedical Innovations
- Keywords
- digital mental health, youth mental health, adolescents, ethical considerations, data privacy, clinical validation, user-centered design, mental health apps, neurotechnology, mental illness
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