Abstract

Mobile health (mHealth) improves health care by leveraging mobile technology to reach out to patients above and beyond traditional medical interventions. Unfortunately, mHealth progress is still lacking for one of the most prevalent disorders worldwide – depression. mHealth for mental health (mH2) needs to deal with specific challenges such as sensitivity of patient information and traditional nature of conversation-based treatment. Nevertheless, mH2 has the potential to improve care through engaging patients in treatment, providing confidentiality and motivating patients to perform their “homework” in-between therapies. Our research is the first comprehensive study of mH2 applications for depression from one major app store. In this research paper we survey the progress of mH2 for depression by applying and extending a previously developed conceptual framework. We derive research opportunities for designing mHealth for mental health and analyze 124 iPhone applications for depression in order to derive the gaps in their functionality and propose actions for fuller usage of their potential. Consequently we propose a comprehensive analysis method for future design research for mHealth for mental health.

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