Mental Health Smartphone Apps: Review and Evidence-Based Recommendations for Future Developments
By D. Bakker, Nikolaos Kazantzis, Debra Rickwood, Nikki S. Rickard. JMIR Mental Health, 2016
830 citations recorded by the source corpus.
Background The number of mental health apps (MHapps) developed and now available to smartphone users has increased in recent years. MHapps and other technology-based solutions have the potential to play an important part in the future of mental health care; however, there is no single guide for the development of evidence-based MHapps. Many currently available MHapps lack features that would greatly improve their functionality, or include features that are not optimized. Furthermore, MHapp developers rarely conduct or publish trial-based experimental validation of their apps. Indeed, a previous systematic review revealed a complete lack of trial-based evidence for many of the hundreds of MHapps available. Objective To guide future MHapp development, a set of clear, practical, evidence-based recommendations is presented for MHapp developers to create better, more rigorous apps. Methods A literature review was conducted, scrutinizing research across diverse fields, including mental health interventions, preventative health, mobile health, and mobile app design. Results Sixteen recommendations were formulated. Evidence for each recommendation is discussed, and guidance on how these recommendations might be integrated into the overall design of an MHapp is offered. Each recommendation is rated on the basis of the strength of associated evidence. It is important to design an MHapp using a behavioral plan and interactive framework that encourages the user to engage with the app; thus, it may not be possible to incorporate all 16 recommendations into a single MHapp. Conclusions Randomized controlled trials are required to validate future MHapps and the principles upon which they are designed, and to further investigate the recommendations presented in this review. Effective MHapps are required to help prevent mental health problems and to ease the burden on health systems.
Subfields: Applied Psychology, Experimental and Cognitive Psychology, General Health Professions
View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/1d844cf24e9451333fae7763ca52ccb2d7dfb703
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In Applied Psychology
In Experimental and Cognitive Psychology
In General Health Professions
Citations in the corpus
- Serious Games and Gamification for Mental Health: Current Status and Promising Directions (2017, background): “Some of these use gaming or gamification, but most have not been scientifically tested (18).”
- Recommendations for policy and practice of telepsychotherapy and e-mental health in Europe and beyond. (2020, background): “…have currently been developed for a specific (diagnosed) clinical disorder (e.g., social anxiety), which implies that they do not make full use of the large accessibility of smartphones in the general population, nor do they acknowledge the continuum of mental health (Bakker et al., 2016).”
- Delivering Cognitive Behavior Therapy to Young Adults With Symptoms of Depression and Anxiety Using a Fully Automated Conversational Agent (Woebot): A Randomized Controlled Trial (2017, background): “In recent years, there has been an explosion of interest and development of such services to either supplement existing mental health treatments or expand limited access to quality mental health services [4].”