Publication date: Jul 21, 2024
Although telehealth psychotherapies have been studied for over 20 years, mental health services remained largely delivered in person until the COVID-19 pandemic forced clinics to reconsider the utility of telehealth psychotherapy. This study aims to compare patient engagement in in-person versus telehealth services in outpatient psychotherapy for mood and anxiety disorders. A cohort investigation was conducted, using a propensity score matched sample, extracted from an electronic health record (EHR) to compare engagement in psychotherapy for 762 patients who used in-person services before the pandemic to a cohort of 762 patients who used telehealth psychotherapy after the onset of COVID-19. The authors compared cohorts on initial engagement in psychotherapy services following an initial intake, number of psychotherapy sessions attended, and the rate of missed sessions. There was a 26% increase in the total number of individual psychotherapy sessions attended when the clinics transitioned to telehealth services (p
| Concepts | Keywords |
|---|---|
| Increase | psychotherapy |
| Outpatient | service engagement |
| Pandemic | service utilization |
| Psychotherapy | telehealth |
| Telehealth |
Semantics
| Type | Source | Name |
|---|---|---|
| disease | MESH | COVID-19 pandemic |
| disease | MESH | anxiety disorders |