Remote mental healthcare before and during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A retrospective observational study using routine outcome measurements

IF 3.2 2区医学 Q1 PSYCHIATRY

Journal of psychiatric research Pub Date : 2025-05-28 DOI:10.1016/j.jpsychires.2025.05.074

Fabian Lenhard , Lisa Wahlström Amnéus , Ida Viklund , Tove Hultstrand , Lena Lundholm , Thomas Tegenmark , Johan Skånberg , Lorena Fernández de la Cruz , Mikael Landén , Lars-Göran Öst

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

Background

Severe disruptions in mental healthcare services were reported during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, little data are available on whether services were able to maintain treatment efficacy during this period.

Objective

The aims of this study were to 1) compare outpatient mental healthcare treatment effects before and during the COVID-19 pandemic, and 2) explore whether the proportion of remote visits affected treatment outcomes.

Methods

Using a clinical cohort from two outpatient mental healthcare clinics in Stockholm, Sweden, we analyzed data from 2290 patients to compare treatment outcomes in years 2017–2019 (“before” the COVID-19 pandemic) vs. years 2020–2022 (“during” the COVID-19 pandemic). Primary outcomes were symptom reductions on patient-reported measures of depression, anxiety disorders, obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Results

We found a significant increase of remote visits during the COVID-19 pandemic (OR = 10.9, 95 % CI [10.49–11.27]). There were no statistically significant differences on treatment outcomes in the periods before vs. during the pandemic for any of the disorders under study. The proportion of remote visits did not have an effect on treatment outcomes.

Conclusions

This large-scale naturalistic study indicates that treatment outcomes during the COVID-19 pandemic were maintained despite unprecedented disruptions.

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COVID-19大流行之前和期间的远程精神卫生保健：使用常规结果测量的回顾性观察性研究

背景：据报道，在2019冠状病毒病大流行期间，精神卫生保健服务严重中断。然而，关于在此期间服务是否能够保持治疗效果的数据很少。目的比较2019冠状病毒病大流行前后门诊精神卫生治疗效果，探讨远程就诊比例对治疗效果的影响。方法使用来自瑞典斯德哥尔摩两家门诊精神保健诊所的临床队列，我们分析了2290名患者的数据，以比较2017-2019年（COVID-19大流行“之前”）与2020-2022年（COVID-19大流行“期间”）的治疗结果。主要结果是患者报告的抑郁症、焦虑症、强迫症（OCD）和创伤后应激障碍（PTSD）的症状减轻。结果我们发现，在2019冠状病毒病大流行期间，远程就诊人数显著增加（OR = 10.9, 95% CI[10.49 ~ 11.27]）。所研究的任何疾病在大流行前与大流行期间的治疗结果没有统计学上的显著差异。远程就诊的比例对治疗结果没有影响。这项大规模的自然研究表明，在COVID-19大流行期间，尽管出现了前所未有的中断，但治疗结果仍保持不变。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Journal of psychiatric research 医学-精神病学

CiteScore

7.30

自引率

2.10%

发文量

622

审稿时长

130 days

期刊介绍： Founded in 1961 to report on the latest work in psychiatry and cognate disciplines, the Journal of Psychiatric Research is dedicated to innovative and timely studies of four important areas of research: (1) clinical studies of all disciplines relating to psychiatric illness, as well as normal human behaviour, including biochemical, physiological, genetic, environmental, social, psychological and epidemiological factors; (2) basic studies pertaining to psychiatry in such fields as neuropsychopharmacology, neuroendocrinology, electrophysiology, genetics, experimental psychology and epidemiology; (3) the growing application of clinical laboratory techniques in psychiatry, including imagery and spectroscopy of the brain, molecular biology and computer sciences;