Second Mind: Ethical and Legal Considerations on Digital Mental Health in the Portuguese Context
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.51338/rppsm.332Keywords:
Big Data, Internet of Things, Mental Health/ethics, Mental Health/legislation & jurisprudence, Mental Health Services, Psychiatry, TelemedicineAbstract
With the emergence of eHealth and mHealth, information technologies and mobile devices are now part of the clinical reality and its future prospects. Within this scope, given its own characteristics, its use in mental health has been focused as especially opportune for advancing in the fight against inequalities in access to quality healthcare. However, this area also appears to be particularly sensitive, and its digital transition deserves a careful analysis from an ethical‐legal point of view. This article aims to review some technologies currently applied in psychiatry and their ethical and legalimplications, namely: 1) issues of access and effectiveness of these technologies; 2) artificial intelligence in psychiatry and its clinical, legal and ethical implications; 3) surveillance systems with geolocation and digital tablets; 4) digital phenotyping and use of big data in mental health. We conclude that, despite contributing evident benefits to mental health, the implementation of these technologies is not innocuous. Their development requires both a legal strengthening of the protection of the patient and a broadening of the ethical debate in an anticipatory perspective, as well as keeping up with the speed of their implementation.
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References
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