Measuring ’MoodTraces’: new app helps monitor depression

Scientists from the University of Birmingham have developed an app that can measure the activity patterns of patients with depression and provide the necessary support. "MoodTraces" is a smartphone app designed to monitor and evaluate a person's mood and activities in real-time, allowing healthcare officers, doctors and charity workers to intervene when behaviours indicate a worsening depressive state. The app will allow academics and clinicians to investigate how mobile technology can be used to collect and analyse data to better understand how mental health problems affect the daily routine and behaviour of sufferers. A series of multiple choice questions asks the user about the occurrence of depressive symptoms, while specially designed software tracks their current location, activity and application usage. If the data collected correlates with key indicators of a worsening mental state, health and charity workers are able to intervene through the mobile phone itself or more traditional methods such as a telephone call, or arranging to meet the patient in person. The information gathered will help build a system to monitor the individual over time and understand any changes which would correlate with worsening depression and to develop a programme of care which can be given through mobile technology. According to a recent study, one in 10 employees in the United Kingdom has taken time off work because of depressive symptoms.