About

This computational essay is versioned in a public git repo: https://github.com/cgranell/apps-treatment-mental-disorders. This R Markdown file, analysis.Rmd, contains the code to produce the final figures and tables of the following paper in JMIR Preprints.

Miralles I, Granell C, Díaz-Sanahuja L, Van Woensel W, Bretón-López J, Mira A, Castilla D, Casteleyn S Smartphone apps for the treatment of mental disorders: a systematic review. JMIR Preprints. 03/06/2019:14897 DOI: 10.2196/preprints.14897

Data

The final number of surveyed papers is 111. For each paper, we have extracted 28 items. Each item is described in the methods section of the paper. About 71.2% (N=79) of papers reported some kind of assessment, whereas 28.8% (N=32) reported no assessment at all. Looking closer at the type of assessment: 16.2% (N=18) focus on the effect of intervention on clinical symptomology; 30.6% (N=34) report a mix of effect and usability / UX assessment; 24.3% (N=27) focus solely on usability / UX.

Figures and tables

Figure 2: Temporal trend of amount of articles published and assessment type. The grey bar in the top figure denotes the estimated number of papers in 2018 (three months covered).

It combines two plots. The top one is a stacked bar chart over years, adn the vaue of each group (assessment type) is in absolute counts. The bottom one is a proportional stacked area chart in which the sum of each year is always equal to hundred, and the value of each group (assessment type) is in percentages.

Figure 3: Distribution of articles per mental disorder, categorized according to assessment type. The embedded pie chart shows the proportional distribution of types of assessment over all mental disorders.

The main plot is a stacked barchart colored by assessment type along with a lollipop chart (white circle at the end of each bar) that shows the total percentatge of each mental disorder. Note that we draw two main colors in the legend: purple represents no assessment at all, the range of greens denotes distinct types of assessment. A pie chart is embedded to show the proportional distribution of types of assessment over all mental disorders.

To complement the previous figure, some percentages are discussed in the body of the article which are included in the following table. Note: the table as it is does not appear on the paper.

Mental Disorder Type of assessment Percentage
Depressive disorders EFFECT 22.7%
EFFECT AND USABILITY/UX 45.5%
NO ASSESSMENT 27.3%
USABILITY/UX 4.5%
Anxiety disorders EFFECT 28.6%
EFFECT AND USABILITY/UX 21.4%
NO ASSESSMENT 50%
Various disorders EFFECT 7.7%
EFFECT AND USABILITY/UX 23.1%
NO ASSESSMENT 30.8%
USABILITY/UX 38.5%
Trauma and stressor-related disorders EFFECT 15.4%
EFFECT AND USABILITY/UX 46.2%
USABILITY/UX 38.5%
Substance-related and addictive disorders EFFECT 20%
EFFECT AND USABILITY/UX 30%
NO ASSESSMENT 40%
USABILITY/UX 10%
Schizophrenia spectrum and other psychotic disorders EFFECT AND USABILITY/UX 12.5%
NO ASSESSMENT 37.5%
USABILITY/UX 50%
Suicidal behavior disorder/ nonsuicidal self-injury EFFECT 14.3%
EFFECT AND USABILITY/UX 28.6%
NO ASSESSMENT 28.6%
USABILITY/UX 28.6%
Comorbid disorders EFFECT 16.7%
NO ASSESSMENT 33.3%
USABILITY/UX 50%
Bipolar and related disorders EFFECT 20%
EFFECT AND USABILITY/UX 40%
USABILITY/UX 40%
Neurodevelopmental disorders EFFECT AND USABILITY/UX 33.3%
NO ASSESSMENT 33.3%
USABILITY/UX 33.3%
Feeding and eating disorders NO ASSESSMENT 33.3%
USABILITY/UX 66.7%
Sleep-wake disorders EFFECT 33.3%
NO ASSESSMENT 66.7%
Obsessive-Compulsive and related disorders EFFECT AND USABILITY/UX 66.7%
USABILITY/UX 33.3%
Personality disorders EFFECT AND USABILITY/UX 100%

Figure 4: Distribution of articles published for the top 6 mental disorders over time.

A line chart to show the number of papers per mental disorder and year.

Table 1: Mental disorders and the studies targeting them: NA = app name not available/not mentioned.

A tabular, compact distribution of papers (apps) per mental disorder, grouping the references per app. The number(s) in brackets next to the app name is the reference(s) in which the app is mentioned. In the table below, these references are internal identifiers instead.

Compact distribution of papers (apps) per mental disorder ‘NA’ is app not specified/available
Mental Disorder References by app
Personality disorders EMOTEO (106)
Obsessive-Compulsive and related disorders Geo-Feedback App (262), Live OCD Free (044), Mayo Clinic Anxiety Coach (056)
Sleep-wake disorders Sleepcare (181), SleepIO (094;103)
Feeding and eating disorders Jorvie (265), RR: Eating Disorder Management (092), Student Bodies–Eating Disorders (SB-ED) (007)
Neurodevelopmental disorders iCanLearn (125), LifePal (142), My MFG (304)
Bipolar and related disorders MyT (042), PRISM (048), SIMPLe (258;226;138)
Comorbid disorders CASA-CHESS (297), Enuresis Trainer (290), Learn To Quit (300), SMI-CM (232), Stop-Cannabis (097), NA (086)
Suicidal behavior disorder/ nonsuicidal self-injury iBobbly (124), Virtual Hope Box (VHB) (026), NA (275;012), Blue Ice (245;022;030)
Schizophrenia spectrum and other psychotic disorders Actissist (305), Heal Your Mind (087), iCOPE (090), PRIME (117), SlowMo (260), TechCare (273), FOCUS (089;120)
Substance-related and addictive disorders Mind the Moment (171), SEVA (127), SmartQuit (217), Smoke Mind (065), A-CHESS (013;307), CET Application (014;021), Smart-T (038;039)
Trauma and stressor-related disorders RELAX (301), Life Armor; PE Coach; Positive Activity Jackpot; Eventful; Tactical Breather; Virtual Hope Box; Daily Yoga; Simply Yoga (121;037), NA (306;302), PE Coach (062;061;069;049), PTSD Coach (160;118;015;088)
Various disorders ACT Daily APP (110), Headspace (177), iBobbly (029), IntelliCare Suite (131), MoodTrainer (185), myCompass (126), PeerTECH App (119), SmartCAT (282), SPIRIT (140), The Moment (281), TODAY! (294), Wellframe (034), WorkingWell (220)
Anxiety disorders Agoraphobia Free; Stress Free (291), Ångesthjälpen (122), AnxietyCoach (192), CBT Assistant (057), Lantern (025), PsychAssist (286), Public Speech Trainer (PST) (050), GET.ON PAPP (091;105), NA (123;308;027;285;163)
Depressive disorders 7Cups (082), Dcombat (235), Get Happy Program (058), MedLink (152), Mobile Sensing and Support (183), MoodHacker (187), Moodivate (188), MyGamePlan (203), PRIME-D (279), SPSRS (115), SuperBetter (231), Thought Challenger (114), TODAC TODAC (020), Kokoro-App (035;263;063), NA (051;023;266;071;303;077)

Figure 5: Bubble plot representing technology-related dimensions (software features - orange; built-in sensors - green; analytics - blue) versus mental disorders. Bubble size corresponds with amount of articles.

It is a bubble plot that shows the distribution of papers per mental disorder (bubble size) and technology-related characteristics grouped by dimensions (bubble color): software features, built-in sensors, and analytics. Technology-related characteristics are ranked in each dimension.

License

This document is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

The code is licensed under the Apache License 2.0.

The data used is licensed under a Open Data Commons Attribution License.

Runtime environment description

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