Development and Evaluation of a Smartphone-Based Measure of Social Rhythms for Bipolar Disorder

Abstract

Dynamic psychological processes are most often assessed using self-report instruments. This places a constraint on how often and for how long data can be collected due to the burden placed on human participants. Smartphones are ubiquitous and highly personal devices, equipped with sensors that offer an opportunity to measure and understand psychological processes in real-world contexts over the long term. In this article, we present a novel smartphone approach to address the limitations of self-report in bipolar disorder where mood and activity are key constructs. We describe the development of MoodRhythm, a smartphone application that incorporates existing self-report elements from interpersonal and social rhythm therapy, a clinically validated treatment, and combines them with novel inputs from smartphone sensors. We reflect on lessons learned in transitioning from an existing self-report instrument to one that involves smartphone sensors and discuss the potential impact of these changes on the future of psychological assessment.

Factors affecting implementation of digital health interventions for people with psychosis or bipolar disorder, and their family and friends: a systematic review

“…[28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40][41][42][43][44] The only study published prior to 2007 involved a telehealth digital intervention. 45 Most of the studies used mixed methods, 28,29,31,32,34,35,[37][38][39][40][41][42][43][44][45][46][47][48][49][50] four used quantitative methods 30,33,36,51 and two studies used qualitative methodology. 52,53 The majority of the studies were feasibility and acceptability trials (42%), 29, 35, 36, 38, 40, 42-44, 50, 53 eight were designed to look specifically at implementation (31%), 28, 30, 32, 45-47, 49, 52 five were pilot studies (19%), 31,39,…”

“…45 Most of the studies used mixed methods, 28,29,31,32,34,35,[37][38][39][40][41][42][43][44][45][46][47][48][49][50] four used quantitative methods 30,33,36,51 and two studies used qualitative methodology. 52,53 The majority of the studies were feasibility and acceptability trials (42%), 29, 35, 36, 38, 40, 42-44, 50, 53 eight were designed to look specifically at implementation (31%), 28, 30, 32, 45-47, 49, 52 five were pilot studies (19%), 31,39,41,48,51 and two were RCTs (8%). 33,34 Seven of the studies included participants with schizophreniform disorders (27%), 29,30,37,38,43,44,51 seven those with bipolar disorder (27%), 28,33,36,40,41,…”

A Survey on Trend, Opportunities and Challenges of mHealth Apps

“…Current mHealth apps can be categorised in terms of individual prevention disease [14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23], personal health safety [24], improving health [25,], improving well-being [26][27][28][29], and giving advice on response to treatment [30]. Evidently, many of available mHealths apps on the market are not grounded in theory.…”

“…Thus, mHealth technology is an alternative for cost effective health support. The review of this study also discover that mHealth researchers and publishers have focused more on individual prevention diseases (Table 1) such as selfmanagement for diabetes [14,15], gout [16], chronic obstructive pulmonary disease [17], bipolar disorders [18] and bowel disease [19], stroke [20,21] heart disease [22] and flu [23]. Article [23] presented HHeal, an app which integrates flu risk information and flu preventive behaviors, which provide a personal flu risk bar that arises when a user is near someone with flu-like symptoms and drops when the user finishes one of the suggested flu-preventive behaviors.…”

“…Despite mHealth apps can facilitate any diseases selfmanagement as previously mentioned, they are more towards physical activity selfsupport rather than decision supports for the self-initiation of medical therapy. Research findings of [18] pointed out that out of the 238 apps screened, none of the apps facilitates a decision support. Usability is another critical issue in mHealth applications.…”