The Minimum Feature Set for Designing Mobile Apps to Support Bipolar Disorder-Affected Patients: Proposal of Essential Functions and Requirements.

Abstract

Research conducted on mobile apps providing mental health services has concluded that patients with mental disorders tend to use such apps to maintain mental health balance technology may help manage and monitor issues like bipolar disorder (BP). This study was conducted in four steps to identify the features of designing a mobile application for BP-affected patients including (1) a literature search, (2) analyzing existing mobile apps to examine their efficiency, (3) interviewing patients affected with BP to discover their needs, and 4) exploring the points of view of experts using a dynamic narrative survey. Literature search and mobile app analysis resulted in 45 features, which were later reduced to 30 after the experts were surveyed about the project. The features included the following: mood monitoring, sleep schedule, energy level evaluation, irritability, speech level, communication, sexual activity, self-confidence level, suicidal thoughts, guilt, concentration level, aggressiveness, anxiety, appetite, smoking or drug abuse, blood pressure, the patient's weight and the side effects of medication, reminders, mood data scales, diagrams or charts of the collected data, referring the collected data to a psychologist, educational information, sending feedbacks to patients using the application, and standard tests for mood assessment. The first phase of analysis should consider an expert and patient view survey, mood and medication tracking, as well as communication with other people in the same situation are the most features to be considered. The present study has identified the necessity of apps intended to manage and monitor bipolar patients to maximize efficiency and minimize relapse and side effects.