Abstract
BackgroundMental health apps have great potential to help people needing support to cope with distress or specific symptoms. In fact, there is an exponential increase in the number of mental health apps available on the internet, with less than 5% being actually studied.ObjectiveThis study aimed to assess the quality of the available evidence regarding the use of mental health apps and to summarize the results obtained so far.MethodsSystematic reviews and meta-analyses were searched, specifically for mobile apps on mental health issues or symptoms, and rated using the Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation system.ResultsA total of 7 meta-analyses were carefully reviewed and rated. Although some meta-analyses looked at any mental health issue and analyzed the data together, these studies were of poorer quality and did not offer strong empirical support for the apps. Studies focusing specifically on anxiety symptoms or depressive symptoms were of moderate to high quality and generally had small to medium effect sizes. Similarly, the effects of apps on stress and quality of life tended to offer small to medium effects and were of moderate to high quality. Studies looking at stand-alone apps had smaller effect sizes but better empirical quality than studies looking at apps with guidance. The studies that included follow-ups mostly found a sustained impact of the app at an 11-week follow-up.ConclusionsThis meta-review revealed that apps for anxiety and depression hold great promise with clear clinical advantages, either as stand-alone self-management or as adjunctive treatments. More meta-analyses and more quality studies are needed to recommend apps for other mental health issues or for specific populations.
Highlights
Mobile Health and AppsRecent years have seen an exponential development of mobile technologies aimed at improving various mental health problems
Literature Search We only included systematic reviews reporting quantitative pooled data, published in full text, in English or French, and those mentioned the use of app technology for mental health issues
When more than one meta-analysis was found for a mental health problem, we reviewed them all and used the following criteria to select the ones we kept: (1) if most of the same studies were reviewed, we kept the meta-analysis with the largest number of studies; and (2) between an older meta-analysis with many small uncontrolled studies and a more recent meta-analysis including only randomized controlled trial https (RCT), we chose the latter
Summary
Recent years have seen an exponential development of mobile technologies aimed at improving various mental health problems Such technologies are considered part of a new field of medicine called mobile health (mHealth). Only a small proportion of these technologies have undergone any form of empirical assessment [3] This lack of app validation is a concern, even more so when studies suggest that mental health– and addiction-related apps currently available to the public, with few exceptions, offer insufficient content quality [4,5,6,7,8]. Methods: Systematic reviews and meta-analyses were searched, for mobile apps on mental health issues or symptoms, and rated using the Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation system. More meta-analyses and more quality studies are needed to recommend apps for other mental health issues or for specific populations
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