Accepted for/Published in: JMIR Mental Health
Date Submitted: Nov 11, 2019
Date Accepted: Jan 14, 2020
The Use of Short Message Service to Improve Clinical Engagement for Individuals with Psychosis: A Systematic Review
ABSTRACT
Background:
Individuals experiencing psychosis are at disproportionate risk for premature disengagement from clinic-based treatment. Common barriers to clinical engagement are limited access to and flexibility in services often due to funding constraints. Digital strategies, like short message service (SMS), offer a low-cost alternative to potentially improve engagement.
Objective:
However, little is known about the efficacy of SMS in psychosis. Thus, this review aims to address this gap, providing insights into the relationship between SMS and clinical engagement in psychosis treatment.
Methods:
A review of studies examining SMS as an engagement strategy in psychosis treatment was conducted. Studies were identified using three core databases and grey literature sources. Studies were published from 2000 onward in English, with no methodological restrictions.
Results:
Of the 233 studies extracted, 14 were eligible for inclusion. Most studies demonstrated positive effects of SMS on dimensions of engagement such as medication adherence, clinic attendance, and therapeutic alliance. Some studies also reported potential effects on other outcomes such as symptom severity and functioning. Feasibility studies found that SMS was safe, easy to use, and positively received.
Conclusions:
Overall, SMS is a low-cost, feasible method of improving engagement in psychosis treatment, though efficacy may vary by symptomology and personal characteristics. Cost-effectiveness was not examined in the studies included. Future studies should consider personalizing SMS-interventions and including cost analysis to appraise readiness for implementation. Clinical Trial: N/A
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Copyright
© The authors. All rights reserved. This is a privileged document currently under peer-review/community review (or an accepted/rejected manuscript). Authors have provided JMIR Publications with an exclusive license to publish this preprint on it's website for review and ahead-of-print citation purposes only. While the final peer-reviewed paper may be licensed under a cc-by license on publication, at this stage authors and publisher expressively prohibit redistribution of this draft paper other than for review purposes.