Behandlungsassistenz durch elektronische Medien in der Schizophrenieversorgung

The use of modern communication and information technology in the health sector, eHealth, is rapidly expanding. eHealth applications, commonly referred to as eMentalHealth, are also increasingly used in psychiatric-psychotherapeutic health care. Despite empirical evidence supporting the effectiveness of eHealth applications in symptom reduction in the areas of depression, anxiety disorders and substance dependence, there are doubts whether eHealth applications can be implemented in the treatment of psychotic disorders where specific symptoms (e. g. cognitive impairment) may hinder the proper handling of these applications. Notwithstanding these concerns, there are promising projects which have been especially developed for patients with psychotic disorders. In the context of this article, we introduce the broad spectrum of areas of application of eHealth for patients with psychotic disorders by way of four examples of specific applications. The smartphone application FOCUS aims to increase the self-management of psychotic symptoms while PsyLog, another smartphone application, seeks to improve the communication on medication-induced side-effects between patient and practitioner by logging adverse side-effects. ITAREPS, which uses text-messaging systems (SMS), concentrates on relapse prevention, and the Avatar Therapy focuses on the specific treatment of auditory hallucinations. First studies imply that eMentalHealth applications are a feasible option also for psychotic patients and that patients' rate of acceptance is high. More research is needed to investigate the efficacy of eMentalHealth applications in the treatment of psychotic disorders and to find solutions to problems of implementation (e. g. meeting of costs by medical insurances).