Scoping Review: Digital Mental Health Interventions for Children and Adolescents Affected by War

Andrea Danese; Dmytro Martsenkovskyi; Barbara Remberk; Monika Youssef Khalil; Emma Diggins; Eleanor Keiller; Saba Masood; Isang Awah; Corrado Barbui; Renée Beer; Rachel Calam; Marcio Gagliato; Tine K Jensen; Zlatina Kostova; James F Leckman; Stephanie J Lewis; Boris Lorberg; Olha Myshakivska; Elisa Pfeiffer; Rita Rosner; Jessica L Schleider; Yulia Shenderovich; Norbert Skokauskas; Patrick H Tolan; Ernesto Caffo; Marit Sijbrandij; Dennis Ougrin; Bennett L Leventhal; John R Weisz; Global Resources fOr War-affected youth (GROW) Network

doi:10.1016/j.jaac.2024.02.017

Scoping Review: Digital Mental Health Interventions for Children and Adolescents Affected by War

J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry. 2024 May 10:S0890-8567(24)00243-0. doi: 10.1016/j.jaac.2024.02.017. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Andrea Danese¹, Dmytro Martsenkovskyi², Barbara Remberk³, Monika Youssef Khalil³, Emma Diggins⁴, Eleanor Keiller⁵, Saba Masood⁵, Isang Awah⁶, Corrado Barbui⁷, Renée Beer⁸, Rachel Calam⁹, Marcio Gagliato¹⁰, Tine K Jensen¹¹, Zlatina Kostova¹², James F Leckman¹³, Stephanie J Lewis¹⁴, Boris Lorberg¹², Olha Myshakivska¹⁵, Elisa Pfeiffer¹⁶, Rita Rosner¹⁷, Jessica L Schleider¹⁸, Yulia Shenderovich¹⁹, Norbert Skokauskas²⁰, Patrick H Tolan²¹, Ernesto Caffo²², Marit Sijbrandij²³, Dennis Ougrin⁵, Bennett L Leventhal²⁴, John R Weisz²⁵; Global Resources fOr War-affected youth (GROW) Network

Affiliations

¹ Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King's College London, London, United Kingdom; South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust, London, United Kingdom. Electronic address: andrea.danese@kcl.ac.uk.
² Bogomolets National Medical University, Kyiv, Ukraine; SI Institute of Psychiatry, Forensic Psychiatric Examination and Drug Monitoring of Ministry of Health of Ukraine, Kyiv, Ukraine; National Children's Specialized Hospital OHMATDYT, Kyiv, Ukraine.
³ Institute of Psychiatry and Neurology, Warsaw, Poland.
⁴ University of Leeds, Leeds, United Kingdom; Leeds Community Healthcare NHS Trust, Leeds, United Kingdom.
⁵ Queen Mary University of London, London, UK; East London NHS Foundation Trust, London, United Kingdom.
⁶ University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom.
⁷ University of Verona, Verona, Italy.
⁸ EMDR Europe Association, Lausanne, Switzerland.
⁹ University of Manchester, Manchester, United Kingdom.
¹⁰ The Mental Health and Psychosocial Support Network - MHPSS.net; Fordham University, New York City, New York.
¹¹ University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway; Norwegian Centre for Violence and Traumatic Stress Studies, Oslo, Norway.
¹² University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School, Worcester, Massachusetts. Prof. Leckman is with.
¹³ Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut.
¹⁴ Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King's College London, London, United Kingdom; South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust, London, United Kingdom.
¹⁵ Institute of Psychiatry, Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, Kyiv, Ukraine.
¹⁶ Ulm University, Ulm, Germany.
¹⁷ Catholic University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt, Eichstätt, Germany.
¹⁸ Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois.
¹⁹ Cardiff University, Cardiff, United Kingdom; University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom.
²⁰ Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway.
²¹ University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia.
²² University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, Italy; Foundation Child; and the Foundation SOS Il Telefono Azzurro ONLUS.
²³ VU University, Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
²⁴ University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois.
²⁵ Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts; Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts.

PMID: 38735431
DOI: 10.1016/j.jaac.2024.02.017

Abstract

Objective: More than 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, to examine the strength of the evidence base, and to 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 September 30, 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: 1 study evaluating digital mental health interventions for children and adolescents affected by war, and 5 studies 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 or carers/caregivers 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.

Diversity & inclusion statement: We actively worked to promote sex and gender balance in our author group.

Study preregistration information: Digital mental health interventions for children and young people affected by war: a scoping review; https://osf.io/; hrny9.

Keywords: adolescents; children; digital intervention; mental health; war.

Publication types

Review