Telemedicine for Patients with Schizophrenia: A Systematic Literature Review on Applications and Outcomes

Context: Schizophrenia is one of the most severe mental disorders that affect all aspects of a patient's lives. Telemedicine can be helpful for this population. Objectives: This study aimed to review the studies for investigating the applications and outcomes of telemedicine in providing healthcare services for patients with schizophrenia. Evidence Acquisition: We searched PubMed and Scopus databases to find relevant studies in July 2020. The combination of two "Schizophrenia" AND "Telemedicine" keywords were used to search databases. Original observational and interventional studies, which have used a telemedicine service in schizophrenia disease, were included in this review. Results: Of 309 gathered studies, 26 studies were entered into this research. The synchronous modality (58%) and videoconference communication (38.5%) were used in most studies. Most studies (84.5%) have shown that telemedicine was a beneficial method. More than half of the studies (58%) had therapeutic goals. The rest of the studies were for diagnostic (19%), educational (11.5%), and both therapeutic and educational (11.5%) purposes. Only one study (4%) showed that telemedicine was not cost-effective. In nine studies (34.5%), users were satisfied with the use of telemedicine services. Conclusions: Telemedicine is a useful method for the management of patients with schizophrenia, especially to improve treatment adherence and prevent relapse. It would be better to pay more attention to the educational issues because of the positive impact on adherence to treatment and prevent relapse.