Self-help Smartphone Applications for Alcohol Use, PTSD, Anxiety, and Depression: Addressing the New Research-Practice Gap

Abstract

The primary objectives of this paper were to (1) review empirical support for existing self-help smartphone applications for depression, anxiety, PTSD, and alcohol use disorders; (2) evaluate whether commercially available self-help applications offer, or were derived from, empirically supported approaches; and (3) provide a framework for evaluating applications for use in the absence of existing empirical support. We performed a systematic review of existing applications via PubMed and performed a content analysis, based on theoretically grounded evidence-based review criteria, on each commercially available application retrieved from Google Play and Apple Store searches. Seventeen academic papers met inclusion criteria and were evaluated; only four empirically supported applications were available commercially. Of the commercial applications, one was found via the PubMed search. While the majority of the smartphone applications evaluated in the content analysis included at least one empirically supported component, there was great variability in how comprehensive the integrated tools were, and a significant proportion included non-evidence-based tools. In this study, we found that evidence-based applications are often not available to the general public and those that are available offer varying degrees of empirically derived tools. These findings unveil a new “research-practice gap” at the intersection of mental health and emergent technology-based interventions. As research attempts to keep pace with emergent intervention technologies, we provide suggestions to consumers and clinicians for reviewing these applications, and for future research in the service of reducing the “research-practice gap.”