Smartphone Apps: Can They Improve Our Mental Health?

Mental health apps are everywhere. But do they actually help us? a

- James Lloyd

When it comes to mental health, smartphones usually get a bad rap – studies have linked their overuse to loneliness, depression and sleep deprivation. But there’s also a growing wellbeing movement built around our phones. A search for ‘mental health’ on the App Store or Google Play throws up hundreds of apps geared towards every aspect of our mental health. There are apps that assess and diagnose our state of mind; apps that allow us to track our feelings and thoughts; apps that provide coping tools, such as meditation and cognitive behavioural therapy; and even therapy chatbots.

According to an NHS digital survey from 2014, around one in six of us experiences depression or an anxiety disorder in any given week. With mental health services increasingly stretched, can these apps provide support to people who are unable to – or don’t want to – access conventional therapies? “Every country in the world has limited access to mental healthcare, and these apps have the potential to deliver evidence-based treatment to the right people at the right time,” says Dr John Torous, director of the digital psychiatry division at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, Massachusetts, and leader of the American Psychiatric Association’s work group on the evaluation of smartphone apps. However, Torous emphasises the word ‘potential’. There is currently little evidence that these apps can be an effective replacement for standard therapies. In a paper published in December last year in the journal