With high-demand therapists and complicating long waiting lists find provider, using mental health app may seem like an attractive and relatively inexpensive way to get help.
These apps claim to help with various problems such as addiction, insomnia, anxiety. schizophrenia, often using tools such as games, therapy chatbots, or mood tracking logs. But most of them are unregulated. While some are considered useful and safe, others may have shaky (or non-existent) privacy policies and a lack of high-quality research showing the apps live up to their marketing claims.
Chairman of the Board Stephen Schueller One Mind PsyberGuideThe lack of regulation has created a “Wild West,” said a nonprofit project that reviews mental health practices. Food and Drug Administration relaxes requirements for digital psychiatry products in 2020.
It’s hard to pinpoint the exact number of mental health apps available, but an estimate from 2017 said it’s the least. 10,000 Downloadable. And these digital products are becoming a lucrative business. At the end of last year, Deloitte Global predicted worldwide spending Mobile mental health apps will approach $500 million in 2022.
So how do you make an informed decision about whether to add one to your phone or not? We sought guidance from several experts.
Who can benefit from a mental health app?
D., director of the digital psychiatry division at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. John Torous said that mental health practices in general can help people gain insight into how their thoughts, feelings, and actions interact with one another. They can also help facilitate the skills that patients learn during therapy, he added.
McLean Hospital’s director of education in the geriatric psychiatry department, Dr. Stephanie Collier noted that mental health apps “can work well alongside physical activity goals like step counters” because exercise can help reduce anxiety and depressive symptoms.
“Similarly,” he said, “practices that teach skills like deep breathing can help anyone experiencing stress—is the stress the result of an anxiety disorder or just conditions?”
But for some people, apps are not very convenient.
Dr. Apps work best when people are motivated and have a mild illness, Collier said. “People with moderate or severe depression may not have enough motivation to complete modules in a mobile app because of their illness.”
Can mental health practices replace therapy?
No, especially if you have troubling symptoms.
Dr. “These are not stand-alone treatments,” Collier said. “But they can be effective when used in conjunction with therapy.”
Ideally, mental health practices teach skills or provide training, said Vaile Wright, senior director of healthcare innovation at the American Psychological Association.
“Maybe I should get some more professional help,” he said, which might be the opening to thinking.
Dr. Torous offers his patients a free app called MindLAMP, which he created to augment their mental health treatments. Tracks people’s sleep patterns, physical activity, and changes in symptoms; can also customize the “homework” that therapists give their patients.
Have these apps been screened by a regulatory agency?
Most likely not. The Food and Drug Administration regulates a small subset applications that provide treatment or diagnosis or are associated with regulated medical devices. But most mental health apps are not subject to government scrutiny.
That’s why some apps make false marketing claims, experts warn, or worse, false and potentially harmful information.
Also a clinical psychologist and associate professor at the University of California, Irvine, Dr. “The number of products far surpasses the research evidence out there,” Schueller said. “Unfortunately most of the research that exists in this area is done internally by companies rather than by neutral outside groups,” he added.
Also, there is no requirement that all healthcare practices comply with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, known as HIPAA, which governs the confidentiality of a patient’s health records.
In final paperDr. Torous and colleagues have explored legal loopholes in digital health practices, uncovering several issues that may arise. wrong phone numbers for suicide crisis hotlines. The newspaper is also a previous work It found that of the 36 top-ranking apps for depression and smoking cessation, 29 shared it with Facebook or Google, but only 12 correctly disclosed this in their privacy policies.
And in March, a study He concluded that an app created to help people with schizophrenia did not outperform a placebo (in this case, a digital countdown timer).
Dr. “All these applications that claim to be effective early or in preliminary or feasibility studies probably need to examine themselves with higher quality science,” Torous said.
Finally, because an app is popular in the online market that doesn’t mean He said it would be safer or more effective.
How do you go about choosing one?
Dr. “As a clinician who has used practices in care for over five years, it has always been difficult to understand which practices are appropriate for patients,” Torous said. “You really have to think about how we can respect people’s individual backgrounds, preferences and needs.”
Instead of looking for the “best app” or the top rated app, try to make an informed decision about which app would be best for you, she added.
One place to start researching is the website. Mind ApplicationsIt was created by clinicians at Beth Israel The Hague Health in Massachusetts. It has reviewed more than 600 apps and is updated every six months. Reviewers look at factors such as: cost, security and privacy concerns, and whether the app is supported by research.
another website, One Mind PsyberGuideevaluates health applications in terms of reliability, user experience, and transparency of privacy practices. Affiliated with the University of California, Irvine, the project has more than 200 applications in its database, each of which is reviewed annually.
What should you pay attention to in an application’s privacy policy?
Although MindApps and One Mind Psyberguide both provide an overview of an app’s privacy policy, you may want to delve into the details yourself.
Dr. Look at what kind of information Collier collects, its security measures, and whether it sells the information to third parties or uses the information for advertising purposes.
According to this 2019 studyLess than half of mobile apps for depression even have a privacy policy, and most privacy policies are only provided after users enter their data.
“If you don’t know if or how your data is being used, it’s not surprising that some people have reservations about using such mobile apps,” said Kristen O’Loughlin, lead author of the study. Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine.
“Choose your app based on available information and your own comfort level by disclosing your personal information,” he added.
Which apps are reputable?
The answer to this question may depend on who you ask. But the experts all spoke loudly mental health apps Developed by the federal government like PTSD Coach; Awareness Coach; and the CPT Coach for people who practice cognitive processing therapy with a professional mental health care provider.
These apps are not only well studied but also free with no hidden costs. They have excellent privacy policies and should never be shared with a third party.
In addition to these apps, Dr. Collier recommends:
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Breathe2Relax (An app designed by an agency in the US Department of Defense to teach belly breathing)
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Virtual Box of Hope (An app produced by the Defense Health Agency that offers support for emotional regulation and stress reduction)
For more suggestions, check out this list of apps at the University of California, San Francisco’s department of psychiatry and behavioral sciences. Web site. Dr. The list, created in consultation with Schueller, includes several free options.