Digital Technology and Mental Health Interventions: Opportunities and Challenges
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.3989/arbor.2015.771n1012Keywords:
digital health, mobile health, mental health, technology, interventionAbstract
The growth of the Internet, mobile phones, social media and other digital technologies has changed our world in many ways. It has provided individuals with information that was previously only available to a select few. An example of the reach of technology is data that as of October 2012, there are over 6 billion phones worldwide (BBC, 2012). The availability of data in real time has presented hopes of intervening more efficiently and managing health problems by leveraging limited human resources. It also has an impact in changing the roles of providers and patients and in legal and ethical issues including privacy in digital health interactions. This paper will discuss why digital technology has received recent attention in the area of mental health, present some applications of technology for mental health to date, explore the challenges to full implementation in clinical settings, and present future opportunities for digital technologies.
Downloads
References
Aguilera, A., Leykin, Y., Adler, N. and Muñoz, R. F. (2012). Assessing the impact of relative social position and absolute community resources on depression and obesity among smokers. American Journal of Community Psychology, 50, 1-2, pp. 211-216. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10464-012-9492-z PMid:22278773 PMCid:PMC4167062
Aguilera, A. and Muñoz, R. F. (2011). Text messaging as an adjunct to CBT in low-income populations: A usability and feasibility pilot study. Professional Psychology: Research and Practice, 42, 6, p. 472.
BBC (2012). UN: Six billion mobile phone subscriptions in the world. Retrieved 9/30/2013, 2013, from http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-19925506
Boschen, M. J. (2009). Mobile telephones and psychotherapy: I. capability and applicability. Behavior Therapist, 32, 8, pp. 168-175.
Boschen, M. J. and Casey, L. M. (2008). The use of mobile telephones as adjuncts to cognitive behavioral psychotherapy. Professional Psychology: Research and Practice, 39, 5, pp. 546-552. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0735-7028.39.5.546
Burns, M. N., Begale, M., Duffecy, J., Gergle, D., Karr, C. J., Giangrande, E. and Mohr, D. C. (2011). Harnessing context sensing to develop a mobile intervention for depression. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 13, 3, e55. http://dx.doi.org/10.2196/jmir.1838 PMid:21840837 PMCid:PMC3222181
Christensen, H., Griffiths, K. M. and Korten, A. (2002). Web-based cognitive behavior therapy: Analysis of site usage and changes in depression and anxiety scores. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 4, 1, e3. http://dx.doi.org/10.2196/jmir.4.1.e3 PMid:11956035 PMCid:PMC1761927
Cole-Lewis, H. and Kershaw, T. (2010). Text messaging as a tool for behavior change in disease prevention and management. Epidemiologic Reviews, 32, pp. 56-69. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/epirev/mxq004 PMid:20354039 PMCid:PMC3082846
Eysenbach, G. (2005). The law of attrition. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 7, 1, p. e11. http://dx.doi.org/10.2196/jmir.7.1.e11 PMid:15829473 PMCid:PMC1550631
Free, C., Phillips, G., Galli, L., Watson, L., Felix, L., Edwards, P., Patel, V. and Haines, A. (2013). The effectiveness of mobile-health technology-based health behaviour change or disease management interventions for health care consumers: A systematic review. PLoS Medicine, 10, 1, e1001362. http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1001362 PMid:23349621 PMCid:PMC3548655
Glasgow, R. E., Boles, S. M., Mckay, H. G., Feil, E. G. and Barrera Jr, M. (2003). The D-net diabetes self-management program: Long-term implementation, outcomes, and generalization results. Preventive Medicine, 36, 4, pp. 410-419. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0091-7435(02)00056-7
Gold, B. C., Burke, S., Pintauro, S., Buzzell, P., and Harvey Berino, J. (2007). Weight loss on the web: A pilot study comparing a structured behavioral intervention to a commercial program. Obesity, 15, 1, 155-164. http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/oby.2007.520 PMid:17228043
Griffiths, F., Lindenmeyer, A., Powell, J., Lowe, P. and Thorogood, M. (2006). Why are health care interventions delivered over the internet? A systematic review of the published literature. Journal of medical Internet research, 8, 2. http://dx.doi.org/10.2196/jmir.8.2.e10
Gustafson, D. H., Shaw, B. R., Isham, A., Baker, T., Boyle, M. G. and Levy, M. (2011). Explicating an evidence-based, theoretically informed, mobile technology-based system to improve outcomes for people in recovery for alcohol dependence. Substance use & Misuse, 46, 1, pp. 96-111. http://dx.doi.org/10.3109/10826084.2011.521413 PMid:21190410 PMCid:PMC3179272
Head, K. J., Noar, S. M., Iannarino, N. T. and Grant Harrington, N. (2013). Efficacy of text messaging-based interventions for health promotion: A meta-analysis. Social Science & Medicine, 97, pp. 41-48. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2013.08.003 PMid:24161087
Heron, K. E. and Smyth, J. M. (2010). Ecological momentary interventions: Incorporating mobile technology into psychosocial and health behaviour treatments. British Journal of Health Psychology, 15, 1, pp. 1-39. http://dx.doi.org/10.1348/135910709X466063 PMid:19646331 PMCid:PMC2800172
Institute of Medicine (2001). Crossing the quality chasm: A new health care system for the 21st century.
Intille, S. S. (2007). Technological innovations enabling automatic, context-sensitive ecological momentary assessment. In Stone, A., Shiffman, S., Atienza, A. and Nebeling, L. The Science of Real-Time Data Capture. Self-Reports in Health Research. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 308-337.
Jia, W., Bandodkar, A. J., Valdes-Ramirez, G., Windmiller, J. R., Yang, Z., Ramirez, J., Chang, G. and Wang, J. (2013). Electrochemical tattoo biosensors for real-time noninvasive lactate monitoring in human perspiration. Analytical Chemistry, 85, 14, pp. 6553-6560. http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/ac401573r PMid:23815621
Kazdin, A. E. and Blase, S. L. (2011). Rebooting psychotherapy research and practice to reduce the burden of mental illness. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 6, 1, 21. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1745691610393527 PMid:26162113
Kumar, S., Nilsen, W. J., Abernethy, A., Atienza, A., Patrick, K., Pavel, M., Riley, W. T., Shar, A. Spring, B., Sprujit-Metz, D., Hedeker, D., Honavar, V., Kravitz, R., Lefevre, R. C., Mohr, D. C., Murphy, S. A., Quinn, C., Shusterman, V. and Swendeman, D. (2013). Mobile health technology evaluation: The mHealth evidence workshop. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 45, 2, pp. 228-236. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.amepre.2013.03.017 PMid:23867031 PMCid:PMC3803146
Lenhart, A. (2010). Adults, cell phones and texting. Retrieved 9/28, 2010, from http://pewresearch.org/pubs/1716/adults-cell-phones-text-messages
Miranda, J., Azocar, F., Organista, K. C., Muñoz, R. F. and Lieberman, A. (1996). Recruiting and retaining low-income latinos in psychotherapy research. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 64, 5, pp. 868-874. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0022-006X.64.5.868
Miranda, J., Chung, J. Y., Green, B. L., Krupnick, J., Siddique, J., Revicki, D. A. and Belin, T. (2003). Treating depression in predominantly low-income young minority women. JAMA: The Journal of the American Medical Association, 290, 1, pp. 57-65. http://dx.doi.org/10.1001/jama.290.1.57 PMid:12837712
Mohr, D., Cuijpers, P., and Lehman, K. (2011). Supportive accountability: A model for providing human support to enhance adherence to eHealth interventions. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 13, 1, e30. http://dx.doi.org/10.2196/jmir.1602 http://dx.doi.org/10.2196/jmir.1602
Mohr, D. C., Cheung, K., Schueller, S. M., Hendricks Brown, C., and Duan, N. (2013). Continuous evaluation of evolving behavioral intervention technologies. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 45, 4, pp. 517-523. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.amepre.2013.06.006 PMid:24050429 PMCid:PMC3828034
Morris, M. E., Kathawala, Q., Leen, T. K., Gorenstein, E. E., Guilak, F., Labhard, M. and Deleeuw, W. (2010). Mobile therapy: Case study evaluations of a cell phone application for emotional self-awareness. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 12, 2, e10. http://dx.doi.org/10.2196/jmir.1371 PMid:20439251 PMCid:PMC2885784
Morris, M. E. and Aguilera, A. (2012). Mobile, social, and wearable computing and the evolution of psychological practice. Professional Psychology: Research and Practice, 43, 6, 622-626. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/a0029041 PMid:25587207 PMCid:PMC4289629
Muench, F., Weiss, R. A., Kuerbis, A. and Morgenstern, J. (2013). Developing a theory driven text messaging intervention for addiction care with user driven content. Psychology of Addictive Behaviors, 27, 1, 315-321. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/a0029963 PMid:22963375 PMCid:PMC3531566
Muñoz, R. F. (2010). Using evidence-based internet interventions to reduce health disparities worldwide. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 12, 5, e60.
Muñoz, R. F., Lenert, L. L., Delucchi, K., Stoddard, J., Perez, J. E., Penilla, C. and Pérez-Stable, E. J. (2006). Toward evidence-based internet interventions: A spanish/english web site for international smoking cessation trials. Nicotine and Tobacco Research, 8, 1, pp. 77-87.
Murray, E., McCambridge, J., Khadjesari, Z., White, I. R., Thompson, S. G., Godfrey, C., Linke, S. and Wallace, P. (2007). The DYD-RCT protocol: An on-line randomised controlled trial of an intercompared with a standard information website to reduce alcohol consumption among hazardous drinkers. BMC Public Health, 7, 1, p. 306. http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1471-2458-7-306 PMid:17963483 PMCid:PMC2238765
Proudfoot, J., Parker, G., Pavlovic, D. H., Manicavasagar, V., Adler, E. and Whitton, A. (2010). Community attitudes to the appropriation of mobile phones for monitoring and managing depression, anxiety, and stress. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 12, 5, e64. http://dx.doi.org/10.2196/jmir.1475 PMid:21169174 PMCid:PMC3057321
Riley, W. T., Glasgow, R. E., Etheredge, L. and Abernethy, A. P. (2013). Rapid, responsive, relevant (R3) research: A call for a rapid learning health research enterprise. Clinical and Translational Medicine, 2, 1, pp. 1-6. http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/2001-1326-2-10
Rizvi, S. L., Dimeff, L. A., Skutch, J., Carroll, D. and Linehan, M. M. (2011). A pilot study of the DBT coach: An interactive mobile phone application for individuals with borderline personality disorder and substance use disorder. Behavior Therapy, 42, 4, pp. 589-600. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.beth.2011.01.003 PMid:22035988
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (2013). HHS imposes a $4.3 million civil money penalty for HIPAA privacy rule violations. Retrieved 9/30, 2013, from http://www.hhs.gov/ocr/privacy/hipaa/news/cignetnews.html
Williamson, D. A., Walden, H. M., White, M. A., York Crowe, E., Newton, R. L., Alfonso, A., Gordon, S. and Ryan, D. (2006). Two Year Internet Based Randomized Controlled Trial for Weight Loss in African American Girls. Obesity, 14, 7, pp. 1231-1243. http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/oby.2006.140 PMid:16899804
Zickhur, K. and Smith, A. (2013). Home Broadband 2013. Pew Research Center. Retrieved from: http://www.pewinternet.org/2013/08/26/home-broadband-2013/
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2015 Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC)
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
© CSIC. Manuscripts published in both the printed and online versions of this Journal are the property of Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, and quoting this source is a requirement for any partial or full reproduction.
All contents of this electronic edition, except where otherwise noted, are distributed under a “Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International” (CC BY 4.0) License. You may read the basic information and the legal text of the license. The indication of the CC BY 4.0 License must be expressly stated in this way when necessary.
Self-archiving in repositories, personal webpages or similar, of any version other than the published by the Editor, is not allowed.
