Can SMS text messages help prevent relapse in schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder?

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A group of UCL Mental Health MSc students summarise a recent pilot study, which explores the acceptability and feasibility of the Texting for Relapse Prevention (T4RP) programme for people with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder.

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Mental health apps: using implementation science to understand sustained use

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Bethany Gill summarises a recent narrative review of mental health apps for depression and anxiety, which explores what’s needed to make sure apps are successfully implemented and used sustainably.

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What content is found in the mental health apps that people are actually using?

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In his debut blog, Stephen Schueller critiques a study of ‘user-adjusted’ analyses, which aims to describe the content of mental health apps that are actually reaching people.

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Is it feasible to use apps to support people with first episode psychosis?

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In her debut blog, Rosa Pitts summarises the ARIES trial, which suggests it may be feasible to use a smartphone app (My Journey 3) to help prevent relapse in psychosis, although questions remain about long-term participant engagement with the app.

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MyFitnessPal: how people with eating disorders use the diet and exercise app

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Georgie Parker reviews a qualitative analysis of Reddit comments relating to the use of MyFitnessPal and its impact on eating disorder behaviours.

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Exploring drop-out rates: new review shows poor retention in trials of apps for depression

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In his debut blog, Tom Steare summarises a systematic review looking at drop out rates in randomised controlled trials of smartphone apps for depression, which finds that depression apps with mood monitoring and human feedback were associated with greater retention of research participants.

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Review of apps and other digital technology to assess cognition in older adults

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Sarah Gregory writes her debut elf blog on a clinical review in the Evidence-Based Mental Health journal about digital technologies for the assessment of cognition.

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How can digital technology help close the mortality gap for people with severe mental illness?

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Lina Gega from the Closing the Gap Network explores a recent review of digital technology for health promotion, which looks at opportunities to address excess mortality in people living with severe mental illness.

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Standards and principles for evaluating mental health apps

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Victoria Betton summarises and considers a recent opinion piece by John Torous and colleagues that heads towards a consensus around standards for mental health apps and digital mental health.

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Smartphone apps for depression: do they work?

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Michelle Eskinazi and Clara Belessiotis write their debut elf blog on a recent meta-analysis of smartphone‐based mental health interventions for depression, which concludes that there is a possibly promising role for apps in the prevention and treatment of sub-clinical, mild and moderate depressive symptoms.

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