Psychotherapy 2.0 - Application Context and Effectiveness of Sensor Technology in Psychotherapy with Children and Adolescents: a Systematic Review (Preprint)

BACKGROUND E-mental health applications have been increasingly used in the psychotherapeutic care of patients for several years. State-of-the-art sensor technology could be used to determine digital biomarkers for the diagnosis of mental disorders. OBJECTIVE Furthermore, by integrating sensors into treatment, relevant contextual information (e.g. field of gaze, stress levels) could be made transparent and improve the treatment of people with mental disorders. An overview over studies on this approach would be useful to provide information about the current status quo. METHODS A systematic review of the use of sensor technology in psychotherapy for children and adolescents was conducted with the aim of investigating the use and effectiveness of sensory technology in psychotherapy treatment. Five databases were searched for studies ranging from 2000 to 2023. The study was registered by PROSPERO (CRD42023374219), conducted according to Cochrane recommendations and used the PRISMA reporting guideline. RESULTS Of the 38.560 hits in the search, only 11 publications met the inclusion criteria, including 3 RCTs, 7 pilot studies and a pre-registered study with a total of 257 subjects. The study population consisted of children and adolescents aged 6 to 19 years with mental disorders such as OCD, anxiety disorders, PTSD, anorexia nervosa and autism. The psychotherapy methods investigated were mostly cognitive behavioral therapy (face-to-face contact) with the treatment method of exposure for various disorders. In most cases, ECG, EDA, eye-tracking and movement sensors were used to measure vital parameters. The heterogeneous studies illustrate a variety of potential useful applications of sensor technology in psychotherapy for adolescents. In some cases, the feasibility of the sensor-based therapy approach has been proven. CONCLUSIONS Sensors might enrich psychotherapy in different application contexts. However, so far there is still a lack of further randomized controlled clinical studies that provide reliable findings on the effectiveness of sensory therapy in psychotherapy for children and adolescents. This could stimulate the embedding of such technologies into psychotherapeutic process. CLINICALTRIAL https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/prospero/display_record.php?ID=CRD42023374219, identifier [CRD42023374219].