Mobile Phone App Being Tested as Mental Health Gauge

Australian carrier Telstra is sponsoring a project at the Murdoch Institute’s Centre for Adolescent Health which will hopefully help out teens with depression. By getting patients to regularly answer questionnaires on their mobile phone regarding mood, drug use, sleeping patterns and other lifestyle variables, doctors hope to more accurately diagnose and treat troubled youth. The program, mobiletype, is currently being tested with 200 people, the results of which will determine an Australia-wide rollout.

“mobiletype capitalises on the familiarity young people have communicating via SMS to help them express their feelings and have their mental well-being effectively assessed… Up to 30 per cent of young people will experience a form of depression by the end of their teenage years. About 50 per cent of common mental disorders begin during adolescence yet unfortunately most people wait six to 23 years to obtain appropriate treatment. Delays between the onset of depression and receiving appropriate treatment are associated with poor mental health outcomes in the long-term, which makes adolescence an important time for intervention,” said [Research Fellow Dr. Sophie Reid].

[via Cellular-News]