Community-based digital mental health interventions for traumatic brain injury patients: A scoping review

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a leading cause of long-term disability, often accompanied by mental health issues such as depression and anxiety. Digital mental health interventions (DMHIs) present promising opportunities for improving the management of these issues, offering solutions such as remote monitoring and outcome tracking through ecological momentary assessment. This scoping review aims to explore the current landscape of DMHIs and the use of patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) in post-TBI populations. A systematic search across six databases identified 23 relevant studies, predominantly from high-income countries. Almost half of retrieved studies focused on mild TBI populations, with limited evidence reporting DMHI use exclusively in moderate or severe cases. The findings highlight the benefits of DMHIs, including real-time data collection, enhanced patient engagement, and the potential to improve care accessibility. However, challenges such as technology literacy, low response rates, and inconsistent measures of clinical efficacy were noted. Most interventions utilised asynchronous methods of communication, such as smartphone applications and SMS, with PROMs used to track emotional, behavioural, and psychological outcomes. A number of gaps were identified, including the need for more research in moderate and severe TBI cases, better integration into existing healthcare infrastructure, and standardisation of outcome measures. This review underscores the potential of DMHIs to enhance mental health care in TBI patients, while calling for more robust, user-centred designs and longer-term studies to ensure sustainability and effectiveness. Further, this review advocates for more interdisciplinary collaboration in the design and deployment of DMHIs, and the application of a systems-based approach to better integrate digital mental health technologies into TBI care pathways, with full consideration of people, systems, design, and risk. Future research should address these gaps to optimise post-injury care and outcomes for TBI patients when digital mental health solutions are implemented.