Joseph Firth|John Torous|Jennifer Nicholas|Rebekah Carney|Abhishek Pratap|Simon Rosenbaum|Jerome Sarris
The efficacy of smartphone?based mental health interventions for depressive symptoms: a meta?analysis of randomized controlled trials
Camden and Campbelltown Hospitals|Western Sydney University|University of Manchester|Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center|Harvard University|Black Dog Institute|UNSW Sydney|Camden and Campbelltown Hospitals|Western Sydney University|Sage Bionetworks|University of Washington Medical Center|UNSW Sydney|Black Dog Institute|University of Melbourne|Camden and Campbelltown Hospitals|Western Sydney University|Melbourne Clinic
rapid advances adoption smartphone technology presents novel opportunity delivering mental health interventions population scale despite multisector investment along widescale advertising availability general population evidence supporting use smartphone apps treatment depression empirically evaluated thus conducted first metaanalysis smartphone apps depressive symptoms electronic database search may 2017 identified 18 eligible randomized controlled trials 22 smartphone apps outcome data 3414 participants depressive symptoms reduced significantly smartphone apps control conditions g038 95 ci 024052 plt0001 evidence publication bias smartphone interventions moderate positive effect comparison inactive controls g056 95 ci 038074 small effect comparison active control conditions g022 95 ci 010033 effects smartphoneonly interventions greater interventions incorporated humancomputerized aspects along smartphone component although difference statistically significant studies cognitive training apps significantly smaller effect size depression outcomes p0004 apps focusing mental health use mood monitoring softwares interventions based cognitive behavioral therapy apps incorporating aspects mindfulness training affect significantly study effect sizes overall results indicate smartphone devices promising selfmanagement tool depression future research aim distil aspects technologies produce beneficial effects populations