Scoping Review: Digital mental health interventions for children and adolescents affected by war

Danese, Andrea, Martsenkovskyi, Dmytro, Remberk, Barbara, Khalil, Monika Youssef, Diggins, Emma, Keiller, Eleanor, Masood, Saba, Awah, Isang, Barbui, Corrado, Beer, Renée, Calam, Rachel, Gagliato, Marcio, Jensen, Tine K., Kostova, Zlatina, Leckman, James F., Lewis, Stephanie J., Lorberg, Boris, Myshakivska, Olha, Pfeiffer, Elisa, Rosner, Rita, Schleider, Jessica L., Shenderovich, Yulia ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0254-3397, Skokauskas, Norbert, Tolan, Patrick H., Caffo, Ernesto, Sijbrandij, Marit, Ougrin, Dennis, Leventhal, Bennett L. and Weisz, John R. 2024. Scoping Review: Digital mental health interventions for children and adolescents affected by war. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry 10.1016/j.jaac.2024.02.017

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Abstract

Objective Over 200 million children and adolescents live in countries affected by violent conflict, are likely to have complex mental health needs, and struggle to access traditional mental health services. Digital mental health interventions have the potential to overcome some of the barriers in accessing mental health support. We performed a scoping review to map existing digital mental health interventions relevant for children and adolescents affected by war, examine the strength of the evidence base, and inform the development of future interventions. Method Based on a pre-registered strategy, we systematically searched MEDLINE, Embase, Global Health, APA PsychInfo, and Google Scholar from the creation of each database to 30th September 2022, identifying k=6,843 studies. Our systematic search was complemented by extensive consultation with experts from the GROW Network. Results The systematic search identified 6 relevant studies: one evaluating digital mental health interventions for children and adolescents affected by war and five for those affected by disasters. Experts identified 35 interventions of possible relevance. The interventions spanned from universal prevention to specialist-guided treatment. Most interventions directly targeted young people and parents/carers and were self-guided. A quarter of the interventions were tested through randomized controlled trials. Because most interventions were not culturally or linguistically adapted to relevant contexts, their implementation potential was unclear. Conclusion There is very limited evidence for the use of digital mental health interventions for children and adolescents affected by war at present. The review provides a framework to inform the development of new interventions.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Published Online
Status:	In Press
Schools:	Social Sciences (Includes Criminology and Education)
Publisher:	Elsevier
ISSN:	0890-8567
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	22 May 2024
Date of Acceptance:	23 February 2024
Last Modified:	22 May 2024 08:00
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/168833

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