The majority of people with mental disorders in low-, middle-, and high-income countries do not receive any intervention for their symptoms, despite enormous advances in developing evidence-based psychosocial treatments and medications. The perspective and viewpoint article discusses and illustrates digital and technology-based interventions and activities in everyday life that have been shown to reduce symptoms of mental disorders. The article begins with background on the treatment gap and a discussion of why treatments do not reach people in need. Digital and technology-based interventions and everyday activities are presented to complement current treatments with the goal of scaling interventions to serve more people in need and to circumvent many of the usual barriers that preclude people from seeking or receiving traditional mental health services. Interventions in each of the categories are illustrated. The challenge is to integrate such interventions in mental health practices, to better promote these at the population level, and to monitor their impact.
Alan E. Kazdin (Fri,) studied this question.