Applications for Remote Psychological Support for People in Forced Isolation: A PRISMA Systematic Review

Background: The systematic review intends on evaluating previous research on applications in an extensive manner to assess the strengths and limitations of using them as an aid in psychological support for individuals in forced isolation. Methods: The inclusion criteria for the review consisted of the research exploring and assessing applications that provide psychological support, along with providing a measure of psychological well being, while the exclusion criteria were being conducted during a period of forced isolation (the COVID-19 pandemic, situations of forced isolation or circumstances, such as chronic illnesses or immunosuppressed patients, that prevent the possibility of reaching hospitals or facilities such as Psychological Centers) and not adequately explaining the platform applied to provide psychological support. The information sources employed to identify studies included in the review are the ACM digital library, Google Scholar, the IEEE digital library, PubMed, SAGE, Scopus and Springer (last search made on 29 March 2023). Microsoft Excel was used to have a better overview when analyzing the data, while the PRISMA 2020 flow diagram for the systematic review was included to have a suitable representation of the search process. The total number of studies in the selection process was 199 (initially 184, with the later addition of 15 studies), with the relevant characteristics being that some were studies, while others were systematic reviews of studies and research papers focused on measuring the effectiveness of applications as a source of psychological support for individuals in forced isolation. Findings: Of the 199 research articles identified the number of articles included in the systematic review was 30. The relevant characteristics of the articles were summarized by outlining the author of the research (along with the year when the article was published), study design employed, country where the research was conducted, population of the study (as the number of individuals or number of studies in the review), whether there was a follow-up or not, platform used, as well as key findings. Findings from this systematic review indicate that applications for remote psychological support for people in forced isolation have significant beneficial effects on the well being of the population. Interpretation: The findings appear to be largely in line with the recent systematic reviews, despite the rather limited number of studies included in the review (N=30). One’s understanding of the generalizability of the applications for remote psychological support to non-western contexts would be immensely enhanced by a higher quantity and quality research conducted across the world. Nevertheless, when directing the questions in future studies it is important to clearly categorize the applications for remote psychological support through the way in which they are administered.