Telehealth and Women’s Perinatal Mental Health

Abstract

The use of e-technology as a platform for mental healthcare offers a potential solution for tackling the considerable challenges of providing acceptable, accessible, sustainable and timely mental healthcare. Research suggests that e-screening is acceptable to pregnant women and is valued for its anonymity and privacy, and emerging evidence suggests that e-screening tools have similar psychometric properties and ability to detect depression as traditional paper-based screening tools, while enhancing disclosure of sensitive topics. E-therapy as an alternative to face-to-face therapy meets pregnant women’s strong preference for self-management. Emerging trial evidence suggests that web-based cognitive behaviour therapy with weekly telephone-based or email follow-up reduces symptoms of postpartum depression significantly. Evidence accumulated over the past decade and summarized in meta-analyses and systematic reviews in the general population supports this finding and indicate that e-therapy is useful for a wide variety of mental health disorders; is more effective when paired with email, text or telephone-based support; produces moderate to large reductions in symptoms; and has similar effectiveness and adherence to face-to-face psychotherapy.

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