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Introduction The COVID-19 outbreak is a serious global public health issue with wide-ranging negative effects on people’s lives, which is reflected in steadily rising mental health problems. In order to appropriately respond to the increased occurrence of psychiatric illness, protect mental health and strengthen resilience it is necessary to include new technologies, such as extended reality (XR) or socially assistive robots (SAR) in not only psychiatric treatment but also in the prevention of psychiatric diseases. In this context, the use of new technologies offers innovative ways to strengthen resilience, self-efficacy and stress coping skills and plays an important role in improving psychological wellbeing. Objectives Preliminary results from studies at the Clinical Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapeutic Medicine in Graz, Austria, dealing with new technologies in psychiatry, show new options for psychiatric settings. Methods Project AMIGA: The aim of this study is to test the effectiveness of a cognitive training session, conducted with the SAR named Pepper. In this randomized controlled trial, the effectiveness of SAR on depressive symptoms and correlates is evaluated in a sample of 60 individuals with major depression. While the intervention group will receive cognitive training with the SAR Pepper, the control group will receive “treatment-as-usual” therapy with a common PC software. Participants will receive 30 minutes of training 2 times per week over a period of 3 weeks. Project XRes4HEALTH: The aim of this study is to develop an XR resilience training to increase resilience and stress coping mechanisms in healthcare workers. A total of 40 people will be included. To test the effectiveness of the resilience training, 3 XR training sessions of 15 minutes each will be held. A pre-post measurement will test the effectiveness of the training on wellbeing and stress levels as well as the acceptance and satisfaction with the training. Project AI-REFIT: The overall goal of this study is to explore key information to increase resilience in healthy individuals who are at increased risk for mental health problems. Through a usability study, the artificial intelligence-based prototype app of the resilience training will be tested for acceptance, usability, functionality, and efficiency. During the resilience training, participants are wearing a smartwatch which measures psychophysiological parameters. Conclusions about the success of the therapy can be drawn based on digital data acquisition. Results New technologies including XR and SAR support classical psychiatric treatment in the topics of resilience and cognitive training as an add-on therapy in times of reduced availability of healthcare workers. Conclusions The rapid development of new technologies holds a lot of potential in the treatment of psychiatric disorders, which is why it is important to scientifically evaluate those innovative tools. Disclosure of Interest None Declared

Background: COVID-19 infection and its associated consequence, known as long-COVID, lead to a significant burden on the global healthcare system and limitations in people's personal and work lives. This study aims to provide further insight into the impact of acute and ongoing COVID-19 symptoms and investigates the role of patients' gender and vaccination status., Methods: 416 individuals (73.9% female) between the ages of 16 and 80 years (M = 44.18, SD = 12.90) with self-reported symptoms of long-COVID participated in an online survey conducted between March and May 2022., Results: 6.0%, 74.3%, and 19.7% of all respondents reported having had an asymptomatic, mild, or severe acute illness, respectively. Out of all participants, 7.8% required hospitalization. The most prevalent symptoms during the acute infection (Mdn = 23.50 symptoms, IQR = 13-39) included fatigue, exhaustion, cough, brain fog, and memory problems. The median long-COVID disease duration was 12.10 months (IQR = 2.8-17.4). Among 64 inquired long-COVID symptoms (Mdn = 17.00 symptoms, IQR = 9-27), participants reported fatigue, exhaustion, memory problems, brain fog, and dyspnea as the most common ongoing symptoms, which were generally experienced as fluctuating and deteriorating after physical or cognitive activity. Common consequences of long-COVID included financial losses (40.5%), changes in the participants' profession (41.0%), stress resistance (87.5%), sexual life (38.1%), and mood (72.1%), as well as breathing difficulties (41.3%), or an increased drug intake (e.g., medicine, alcohol; 44.6%). In addition, vaccinated individuals exhibited a shorter acute illness duration and an earlier onset of long-COVID symptoms. In general, women reported more long-COVID symptoms than men., Conclusion: Long-COVID represents a heterogeneous disease and impacts multiple life aspects of those affected. Tailored rehabilitation programs targeting the plurality of physical and mental symptoms are needed., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist., (Copyright: © 2024 Leitner et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)