Digital Interventions for Relapse Prevention, Illness Self-Management, and Health Promotion In Schizophrenia: Recent...

Schizophrenia presents a significant mental health challenge requiring innovative solutions for relapse prevention, self-management, and health promotion. Patients face an excess mortality gap, driven by increased rates of chronic health conditions, exacerbated in low-resource settings. Digital interventions are a promising avenue to address the multifaceted needs of individuals with schizophrenia. This narrative review synthesizes evidence from digital intervention trials for schizophrenia published from January 2020 to June 2023.

23 studies were identified, encompassing smartphone applications and web-based platforms to mitigate symptom severity, prevent relapse, and promote physical health. Key developments thus far have shown reduced symptom burden, and enhanced medication adherence and physical activity engagement. Despite more than a decade of research on digital interventions, many trials in this review continued to focus on acceptability and feasibility, with emphasis on patient uptake. This suggests the field has shown limited advancement in effectiveness studies of digital interventions.

As the field evolves, further fully powered effectiveness studies, greater emphasis on implementation studies for digital tools for schizophrenia, and attention on digital health equity and evidence generation among those in lower-income countries are warranted. These findings hold implications for clinicians, researchers, and policymakers towards optimizing digital care for individuals with schizophrenia.