Current medical research and opinion
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Many patients with mental disorders lack access to care mainly due to provider shortages. Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic significantly raised the prevalence of anxiety, depression, substance use disorder and suicidal thoughts among people. Mandated social distancing, and higher incidence of mental disorders increased the demand for Telemental Health (TMH). ⋯ Despite the decline in use of telehealth for other health conditions after the pandemic peak, TMH use has remained strong representing 36% of outpatient visits. TMH is beneficial to patients in terms of cost and time saving; thus, the beneficiary regulatory changes should be sustained. Further well-designed studies are needed on the cost-effectiveness of telehealth interventions, and policymakers need to collect more data to decide whether and how to keep these changes permanently for TMH.