Digital Mental Health Interventions in Comorbid Chronic Physical Conditions

Mental health problems are highly prevalent among individuals with chronic physical conditions (e.g., COPD, cardiovascular disease, and diabetes). Individuals with multimorbidity, defined as the co-occurrence of chronic physical conditions and mental health problems, frequently experience elevated psychological distress, including anxiety, depressive symptoms, and emotional strain, alongside the ongoing demands of managing and adapting to long-term illness. These combined challenges can negatively affect coping, daily functioning, and engagement with both psychological and somatic care. At the same time, mental health problems are not always adequately identified or treated, partly due to fragmentation between mental and physical healthcare, resulting in limited integration of psychological support within chronic care pathways.

Digital and blended mental health interventions offer promising opportunities to improve access to care and support more integrated and continuous delivery of psychological support in multimorbidity. However, evidence regarding their effectiveness, implementation, integration into routine care, and sustained use in real-world care settings remains limited.

In addition, there is increasing recognition that broader psychological processes, such as coping, psychological flexibility, and resilience, play a key role in how individuals manage mental health in the context of multimorbidity and self-manage chronic physical conditions. Yet, these mechanisms remain underexplored in digital mental health research. Therefore, there is a need to further consolidate and advance research on digital and blended interventions for individuals with multimorbidity, focusing on access to care, engagement, effectiveness, personalization, and integration into routine care, as well as psychological mechanisms such as coping and resilience to support long-term adaptation.

The goal of this Research Topic is to advance understanding of how digital and blended mental health interventions can support individuals with mental health problems and comorbid chronic physical conditions. It addresses key gaps in evidence regarding effectiveness, personalization, engagement, implementation, and key stakeholder (e.g., patients, healthcare professionals) perspectives shaping the delivery and use of such interventions. By integrating empirical, implementation, and design-focused studies, the topic seeks to inform more accessible, integrated, and psychologically informed digital and blended mental health care for individuals with multimorbidity.

Areas of particular interest include the development, evaluation, and optimization of digital and blended interventions for individuals with mental health needs ranging from psychological distress to clinically diagnosed disorders in the context of multimorbidity. Contributions should explicitly address multimorbidity.

Suitable themes for manuscripts include (but are not limited to):

• Impact of digital and blended interventions on mental health outcomes and daily functioning.
• Development and optimization of digital and blended interventions, including design, structure, and delivery formats.
• Personalization and tailoring of digital mental health care for heterogeneous needs.
• Engagement, usability, and sustained use of digital and blended mental health interventions in real-world settings.
• Blended care approaches within routine care pathways.
• Patient, healthcare professional, and stakeholder perspectives on use, acceptability, and design requirements of digital and blended mental health interventions.
• Mechanisms of change in digital mental health interventions, including coping, psychological flexibility, emotion regulation, and resilience.
• Implementation research on delivery and uptake of digital and blended interventions in real-world care settings.
• Emerging digital approaches (e.g., mobile health, web-based, and data-informed tools) supporting scalable and integrated care.

Article types and fees

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Classification
• Clinical Trial
• Data Report
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• General Commentary
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• ... View all formats

Articles that are accepted for publication by our external editors following rigorous peer review incur a publishing fee charged to Authors, institutions, or funders.

Article types

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Classification
• Clinical Trial
• Data Report
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• General Commentary
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• Mini Review
• Opinion
• Original Research
• Perspective
• Policy and Practice Reviews
• Policy Brief
• Review
• Study Protocol
• Systematic Review
• Technology and Code

Keywords: Chronic physical conditions, Psychological resilience, Mental and physical comorbidity, Integrated care, Digital and blended mental health interventions

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.