APA poster 2015 — Smartphone Apps for Anxiety-2
•
1 like•179 views
This document reviews smartphone apps available for patients with anxiety disorders. It conducted searches of the iOS app store for popular anxiety apps and evaluated them based on a heuristic framework. The results found that while some apps were suitable, many had privacy, security, or efficacy issues. The conclusion recommends that both clinicians and patients carefully evaluate apps before using them as adjuncts to treatment.
APA poster 2015 — Smartphone Apps for Anxiety-2
- 1. Erik Shwarts MD PhD1 , Steven R. Chan MD MBA1 , John Torous MD2 , Satish Misra MD3 , Peter Yellowlees MD MBBS1 Smartphone Apps for Anxiety Mobile phones are increasingly being used amongst psychiatric patients with a majority of psychiatric patients using devices that can run applications9 . The increased commercial availability of telepsychiatry and mobile counseling services has led to a variety of ready-to-download apps on both Android and iOS devices. We highlight apps available for patients with anxiety disorders to use as an adjunct to psychiatric treatment, and review them accordingly. A Review of Commercially Available Apps Using a Heuristic Review Framework A variety of applications were found suitable for use for anxiety disorders, but a number of applications that were available did not meet full criteria for the heuristics framework. Not all applications featured privacy policies. Some applications accessed features on the device - such as the device's precise GPS-based location, access to device's photos, and access to the phone's call log - not explained by the app developer. OBJECTIVE / BACKGROUND METHOD RESULTS CONCLUSION Smartphone apps can serve as a useful complement to existing treatment. Interactive components in such apps make them useful for self-help and serve as a more interactive form of bibliotherapy and psychotherapy homework. However, numerous apps had concerning security, privacy, and efficacy issues. Both clinicians and patients should be wary of these prior to downloading, purchasing, and using such apps. A search was conducted on iOS's App Store — at https://www. appannie.com/apps/all-stores/keyword-top/united-states/? device=iphone&date=2015-04-12&word=anxiety — for anxiety apps in the top 10 search criteria as ranked by the App Store. Although the exact ranking algorithm is not published, the rankings are generally thought to be determined by revenue and number of downloads. Apps were downloaded to a device that ran iOS. We then graded apps on heuristic criteria that observed their efficacy, data security and privacy, usability, features, and price. This heuristic framework is based on recent academic and commercial literature used to evaluate clinical informatics, telemedicine, and other systems and adapted for mental health technologies, based on work by Adam Powell and John Torous and colleagues10 . 4 =very easy; 0=very difficult 4 =highly likely; 0=highly unlikely 4 =complete ability; 0=no ability 4 =very interactive, helpful feedback 0 =not interactive, no feedback 3 =data from at least one randomized controlled trial 2 =data from at least one non- randomized non-controlled trial 1 =data from an open study 0 = no data provided 2 = research supported exclusively by government agency or non-profit organizations 1 = research supported in full or part by for-profit organizations 0 = no data provided 3 =The application is designed to improve a specific condition or symptom 2 =The application is designed to help with non-specific items such as “mood” or “brain fitness” 1 =The application is designed to track and monitor items such as symptom severity or medication 0 = No data provided 2 =ratings exist from >50 users 1 =ratings exist from 25-50 users 0 =fewer than 25 user ratings 1 =yes; 0=no A B C D E F G H J 1 2 3 1. Powell AC, Landman AB, Bates DW. In search of a few good apps. JAMA. 2014;311(18):1851-2. 2. Kharrazi H, Chisholm R, Vannasdale D, Thompson B. Mobile personal health records: an evaluation of features and functionality. Int J Med Inform. 2012;81(9):579-93. 3. Pandey A, Hasan S, Dubey D, Sarangi S. Smartphone apps as a source of cancer information: changing trends in health information-seeking behavior. J Cancer Educ. 2013;28(1):138-42. 4. PsyberGuide Ratings – Explanation. PsyberGuide. http://psyberguide.org/psyberguide-ratings-explanation/ Accessed February 20, 2015. 5. Mobile Apps. Anxiety and Depression Association of America. http://www.adaa.org/finding-help/mobile-apps Accessed February 21, 2015. 6. Lewis TL. A systematic self-certification model for mobile medical apps. J Med Internet Res. 2013;15(4):e89. 7. Martínez-pérez B, De la torre-díez I, Candelas-plasencia S, López-coronado M. Development and evaluation of tools for measuring the quality of experience (QoE) in mHealth applications. J Med Syst. 2013;37(5):9976. 8. Ferrero-Álvarez-Rementería J. et al. X. European Journal of ePractice. December 2013;(21): 14-26. 9. J. Torous, S.R. Chan, S. Tan, J. Behrens, I. Mathew, E. Conrad, L. Hinton, P. Yellowlees, M. Keshavan. “Smartphone Ownership and Interest in Mobile Applications to Monitor Symptoms of Mental Health Conditions: A Survey Study of Four Geographically Distinct Clinics.” JMIR Mental Health 2014;1(1):e5 DOI: 10.2196/mental.4004 10. Powell A, Torous J, Chan SR, Shwarts E. “Evaluating mHealth App Evaluations.” In process, 2015. REFERENCES