Michael R. Hufford*, MindApps, Chapel Hill, United States Michelle G. Newman, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, United States Jason Eger, MindApps, Pittsburgh, United States William Hetzel, MindApps, Los Angeles, United States Track: Business Presentation Topic: Mobile & Tablet Health Applications Presentation Type: Oral presentation Submission Type: Single Presentation Building: Joseph B. Martin Conference Center at Harvard Medical School Room: B-Bray Room Date: 2012-09-16 09:00 AM – 09:45 AM Last modified: 2012-09-16

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Background. Despite an enormous and growing unmet need, mental health care delivery has remained unchanged for over 100 years, relying on face-to-face treatment of patients by healthcare professionals. For example, nearly 7M Americans suffer from major depressive disorder in any 12-month period, yet less than half receive treatment (Wang et al, 2005), and only 1-in-5 receive a science-based psychotherapeutic intervention (Gonzalez et al., 2010). Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) is a science-based intervention for a variety of problems, including depression, anxiety disorders, substance abuse, coping with chronic pain, and PTSD (Butler et al., 2006), and research has shown that handheld technology can effectively deliver CBT (e.g., Newman et al., 1996). MindApps was formed in 2009 to provide real-time, science-based mental health care interventions, like CBT, on mobile platforms.

Objective. To determine whether mobile technology can be used to deliver real-time psychotherapeutic interventions relying on the principles of CBT.

Methods. MindApps developed eCBT Mood©, a stand-alone iPhone® app for depression, that enables users to learn about the relationships among their thoughts, feelings and behaviors, systematically track their mood, and learn to challenge their negative automatic thoughts as they occur in the real world, thus moving therapy out of the office and into the real world. eCBT Mood includes several features, including: psychoeducation regarding CBT, exercises to identify negative automatic thoughts, a feeling and thoughts log, exercises to challenge automatic thoughts, and daily mood tracking. Reports of suicidal ideation trigger the user to contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, a 24-hour nationwide hotline dedicated to suicide prevention. In partnership with the website Psych Central®, users can also find a referral to licensed therapists in their area or join online support groups. Feedback was received on an ad hoc basis from users through a contact e-mail that they could use to voluntarily send feedback to the developers at MindApps. No information is captured from the app and sent to MindApps in any scenario, in accordance with our privacy policy.

Results. To date, eCBT Mood has been downloaded thousands of times across more than 30 countries. User feedback reflects that the app is used in several contexts, including: (a) in conjunction with traditional CBT therapy (e.g., when the user can either not afford, or lives too far away, to see their therapist regularly), (b) as a stand-alone intervention, and (c) among users who have completed CBT with a licensed therapist but use the app as a part of their long-term relapse prevention plan.

Conclusions. In addition to the successful development and distribution of eCBT Mood©, MindApps’ platform for real-time mental health care interventions lends itself to multiple other areas, including post-traumatic stress disorder (eCBT Trauma©), anxiety disorders (eCBT Calm©), substance abuse, chronic pain, and eating disorders. These future releases will also include feedback from users, medication management, and other features to help bridge the chasms separating patients, mental healthcare providers, and other stakeholders in the healthcare industry.