Abstract
As the prevalence of mental illnesses such as depression and anxiety continues to grow, clinicians have turned to mobile applications as tools for aiding and supporting their patients’ treatment. These applications can be especially helpful for teenagers and young adults suffering from mental illness due to their frequent use of technology as a means of communication. Depression is the fourth frequent cause of death. It can affect almost anybody, including children. In most cases non-pharmacological treatment is preferred since it is less invasive, has fewer side-effects and sometimes it is also less expensive. The paper aims to explore the effectiveness of the use of mobile applications, which is demonstrated clinically and consequently, the focus is also put on the criteria evaluating the quality, strengths and weaknesses of current mobile health applications. The results show that clinical trials confirm some positive effects of mobile applications, however the evidence is rather low and further monitoring is needed.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
mHealth Alliance. mHealth solutions for improving mental health and illnesses in the aging process, White Paper Series on mHealth and Aging (2013). http://www.mhealthknowledge.org/sites/default/files/7_mHA-Aging-Paper3_092713.pdf
Lönnqvist, J.: Major psychiatric disorders in suicide and suicide attempters. In: Wasserman, D., Wasserman, C. (eds.) Oxford Textbook of Suicidology and Suicide Prevention: A Global Approach, pp. 275–286. Oxford University Press, Oxford (2009)
Klimova, B., Maresova, P., Valis, M., Hort, J., Kuca, K.: Alzheimer’s disease and language impairments: social intervention and medical treatment. Clin. Interv. Aging 10, 1401–1408 (2015)
Maresova, P., Mohelska, H., Dolejs, J., Kuca, K.: Socio-economic aspects of Alzheimer’s disease. Curr. Alzheimer Res. 12(9), 903–911 (2015)
Evans, W.D., Abroms, L.C., Poropatich, R., Nielsen, P.E., Wallace, J.L.: Mobile health evaluation methods: the Text4baby case study. J. Health Commun. 17(1), 22–29 (2012)
Kohn, R., Saxena, S., Levav, I., Saraceno, B.: The treatment gap in mental health care. Bull. World Health Organ. 82(11), 858–866 (2004)
Powell, A.C., Torous, J., Chan, S., Raynor, G.S., Shwarts, E., Shanahan, M., Landman, A.B.: Interrater reliability of mHealth app rating measures: analysis of top depression and smoking cessation apps. JMIR 4(1), e15 (2016)
Powell, A.C., Landman, A.B., Bates, D.W.: In search of a few good apps. JAMA 311(18), 1851–1852 (2014)
Haller, G., Haller, D.M., Courvoisier, D.S., Lovis, C.: Handheld vs. laptop computers for electronic data collection in clinical research: a crossover randomized trial. J. Am. Med. Informatics Assoc. 16, 651 (2009)
iPhone in Business. Security Overview (2016). http://images.apple.com/iphone/business/docs/iPhone_Security.pdf
Palm webOS Security Overview for Enterprise (2016). http://www.hpwebos.com/us/assets/pdfs/business/Palm_WhitePaper_Security.pdf
Device Administration (2016). http://developer.android.com/guide/topics/admin/device-admin.html
Ozdalga, E., Ozdalga, A., Ahuja, N.: The smarphone in Medicine: a review of current and potential use among physicians and students. J. Med. Internet Res. 14(5), e128 (2012)
Hedman, E., Ljótsson, B., Lindefors, N.: Cognitive behavior therapy via the internet: a systematic review of applications, clinical efficacy and cost-effectiveness. Expert Rev. Pharmacoecon Outcomes Res. 12, 745–764 (2012)
Ly, K.H., Janni, E., Wiede, R., Sedem, M., Donker, T., Carlberg, P., Andersson, G.: Experiences of a guided smart-based behavioral activation therapy for depression: a qualitative study. Internet Interv. 2(1), 60–68 (2015)
Andersson, G., Titov, N.: Advantages and limitations of Internet-based interventions for common mental disorders. World Psychiatry 13(1), 4–11 (2014)
East, M.L., Harvard, B.C.: Mental health mobile apps: from infusion to diffusion in the mental health social system. JMIR 2(1), e10 (2015)
Acknowledgement
The paper was written with the support of the specific project grant “Economics and Managerial aspects in Biomedicine” granted by the University of Hradec Kralove, Czech Republic.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2018 ICST Institute for Computer Sciences, Social Informatics and Telecommunications Engineering
About this paper
Cite this paper
Maresova, P., Klimova, B. (2018). Non-pharmacological Approaches in the Depression Treatment - Strengths and Weaknesses of Mobile Applications Use. In: Oliver, N., Serino, S., Matic, A., Cipresso, P., Filipovic, N., Gavrilovska, L. (eds) Pervasive Computing Paradigms for Mental Health. FABULOUS MindCare IIOT 2016 2016 2015. Lecture Notes of the Institute for Computer Sciences, Social Informatics and Telecommunications Engineering, vol 207. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-74935-8_10
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-74935-8_10
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-74934-1
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-74935-8
eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)