title: Online Treatment and Virtual Therapists in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.
abstract: Online and virtual therapies are a well-studied and efficacious treatment option for various mental and behavioral health conditions among children and adolescents. However, many interventions have not considered the unique affordances offered by technologies that might align with the capacities and interests of youth users. In this article, the authors discuss learnings from child-computer interaction that can inform future generations of interventions and guide developers, practitioners, and researchers how to best use new technologies for youth populations. The article concludes with innovative examples illustrating future potentials of online and virtual therapies such as gaming and social networking.
authors.affiliation: Department of Preventive Medicine, Center for Behavioral Intervention Technologies (CBITs), Northwestern University, 750 North Lake Shore Drive, Chicago, IL 60611, USA. Electronic address: schueller@northwestern.edu.
authors.forename: Stephen M
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Schueller
authors.affiliation: Department of Preventive Medicine, Center for Behavioral Intervention Technologies (CBITs), Northwestern University, 750 North Lake Shore Drive, Chicago, IL 60611, USA.
authors.forename: Colleen
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Stiles-Shields
authors.affiliation: Department of Computer Science and Engineering, University of Minnesota, 200 Union Street, Southeast, Minneapolis, MN 55455-0159, USA.
authors.forename: Lana
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Yarosh
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000296:Adolescent Psychiatry / Q000379:methods*; D002648:Child; D002665:Child Psychiatry / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D020407:Internet; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000628:therapy*; D000076142:Virtual Reality
keywords: Children; Design; Treatment; eHealth/mhealth