JMIR Mental Health

Cognitive remediation improves cognition and psychosocial functioning in individuals with psychotic disorders. The use of virtual reality (VR) to deliver cognitive remediation in immersive environments that mimic real cognitively challenging situations has the potential to increase engagement to treatment and further enhance its impact on functioning.

Mental health care providers have widely adopted telemedicine since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Some providers have reported difficulties in implementing telemedicine and are still assessing its sustainability for their practices. Recommendations, best practices, and guidelines for telemedicine-based mental health care (ie, telemental health care [TMH]) have been published, but the nature and extent of this guidance have not been assessed.

The dual nature of suicide-related internet use as preventative or harmful is well-documented, but its characteristics in mental health patient population remain underresearched. Some evidence suggests mental health patients engage in suicide-related internet use differently from the general population.

Older adults with mental illness face specific physical and psychosocial challenges and inequities, reflected in limited access to advanced technology. This digital divide is alarming as mental health interventions increasingly depend on both patients’ and clinicians’ access to technology. However, digitalized treatments also present opportunities to enhance accessibility, effectiveness, and equity across age groups.

Mental health problems and adverse health behaviors are enriched in individuals with obesity and need to be considered in weight loss interventions. Regarding weight loss, hybrid interventions combining digital and in-person elements have proven superior to eHealth-only interventions. However, it remains unclear whether minimal group or individual enhancement could bring additional benefits to the mental health and health behavior domains in individuals with obesity.

The general public is largely aware of meditation and there is compelling evidence the practice has health benefits. But, many people who are aware of meditation have not tried it, and those who do often struggle to establish a regular practice. The barriers to meditation are generally understood and include a lack of knowledge, a lack of time, and unclear benefits. These barriers present an impediment to self-efficacy in establishing a meditation practice. Despite these challenges, current strategies for promoting meditation may fail to address these barriers, leaving a gap in our knowledge about health communication efforts aimed at fostering meditation practices.

Mental health disorders affect an estimated 1 in 8 individuals globally, yet traditional interventions often face barriers, such as limited accessibility, high costs, and persistent stigma. Recent advancements in generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) have introduced AI systems capable of understanding and producing humanlike language in real time. These developments present new opportunities to enhance mental health care.

Online forums are used widely to facilitate mental health peer support. However, concerns exist regarding potential harm associated with their use, and little is known about forum safety from the user perspective.

Suicide is one of the most pressing public health issues in the United States, inflicting a devastating toll on families, communities, and society. Individuals with suicide risk often visit emergency departments (EDs), but the setting has chronic shortages in psychiatric care staffing, which results in gaps in best practices, prolonged length of stay for patients, and unnecessary inpatient admissions. To improve behavioral health care and suicide prevention practices, we implemented telehealth-based mental health evaluations with enhanced suicide care at 2 EDs in Massachusetts. Little is known about patient experiences and perceptions toward the appropriateness of telehealth for emergency mental health evaluations in the context of suicide prevention.

Anxiety and depression are serious mental health conditions affecting millions of people worldwide; however, they are often underdiagnosed due to limited health care resources. Mobile games, with their widespread popularity and availability, offer a unique opportunity to use user-game interaction data for mental health screening.

The uptake of digital mental health tools (DMHTs) in mental health services is suboptimal, limiting key opportunities to facilitate personalised and measurement-based care. This misses critical opportunities for enhanced patient-clinician communication, enhanced assessment and early intervention.

Psychological distress becomes more common during adolescence, yet many young people struggle to access clinic-based mental health care. Digital, self-help single-session interventions (SSIs) could extend current provision and overcome barriers to help seeking.