Digital Phenotyping in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry: A Perspective

Abstract

Digital phenotyping (DP) provides opportunities to study child and adolescent psychiatry from a novel perspective. DP combines objective data obtained from digital sensors with participant-generated “active data,” in order to understand better an individual’s behavior and environmental interactions. Although this new method has led to advances in adult psychiatry, its use in child psychiatry has been more limited. This review aims to demonstrate potential benefits of DP methodology and passive data collection by reviewing studies specifically in child and adolescent psychiatry. Twenty-six studies were identified that collected passive data from four different categories: accelerometer/actigraph data, physiological data, GPS data, and step count. Study topics ranged from the associations between manic symptomology and cardiac parameters to the role of daily emotions, sleep, and social interactions in treatment for pediatric anxiety. Reviewed studies highlighted the diverse ways in which objective data can augment naturalistic self-report methods in child and adolescent psychiatry to allow for more objective, ecologically valid, and temporally resolved conclusions. Though limitations exist—including a lack of participant adherence and device failure and misuse—DP technology may represent a new and effective method for understanding pediatric cognition, behavior, disease etiology, and treatment efficacy.

Digital Phenotypes for Early Detection of Internet Gaming Disorder in Adolescent Students: Explorative Data-Driven Study

“…Digital phenotyping may play a role as a universal mental health screening tool, especially in school settings, assessing all children and adolescents irrespective of visible symptoms. Unlike the traditional practices that rely on observable symptoms noted by teachers and caregivers, the digital phenotyping approach may identify subtler indicators [ 19 , 25 ], enabling early detection of mental health issues [ 26 ] while students use their devices in schools. Then, subsequent diagnostic assessments can be used upon identification of concerns to make early intervention strategies [ 26 ].…”

Ethical considerations in using sensors to remotely assess pediatric health behaviors.

“…Together, this article is a primer for ethics in sensor-based pediatric health behavior research and is not an exhaustive list of all possible ethical challenges and remedies or all types of sensors. The landscape of technological innovation and application of sensors in psychological research is evolving in exciting and unprecedented directions (e.g., combining data from sensors and repeated self-report to create digital phenotypes of psychological concepts, such as child anxiety; Nisenson et al, 2021)—so must our discussion of ethical use of sensors continue to evolve.…”

Sensing behavior change in chronic pain: A scoping review of sensor technology for use in daily life

“…Our search for wearable or fixed sensors useable in the environment of people with pain, focusing on psychological and social variables, provided 60 studies, mainly on musculoskeletal pain 16,20,49,63 and in high-income countries. Most were conducted in the 5 years preceding the search, benefiting from rapid technological progress.…”