Mobile applications for mental health self-care: A scoping review

Over the past decade, there has been a steady increase of the number of mobile and web-based applications that enable people with mental disorders to self-regulate their mental health needs, to feel autonomous, and to take responsibility for their own care. To the best of our knowledge, no current reviews explore the features of self-care applications used for mental disorders. The purpose of this review is to explore the characteristics of novel mobile applications utilized for mental health self-care. A scoping review of literature was conducted. The search sources consisted of searching 6 electronic databases (e.g., Medline, PsychINFO) and conducting backward and forward reference list checking. Rayyan software was used for this study selection process. One reviewer checked the eligibility of the retrieved studies and extracted data from the included studies. A narrative approach was used to synthesize the extracted data. 2744 citations were identified by searching the electronic databases. Of those, 15 studies were included in this review. Twelve studies used mobile applications while the remaining three studies used web-based applications. Applications in most of the included studies targeted depression (9/15, 60%). Only two types of study designs were identified from the included studies: Randomized control trials (10/15, 67%) and Usability and feasibility studies (5/15, 33%). Six studies had a sample size of less than 50 while six studies had a sample size of more than 200. While many mobile apps have been developed to promote self-care, there is a gap in the current literature discussing the effectiveness of such mental health resources. Detailed systematic reviews in this field are needed. Through this scoping review we were only able to identify 15 such studies from our initial search returning 2744 studies. As such, this review will ideally encourage developers to produce future, empirically reviewed apps that rise to the challenge of both being user-friendly as well as scientifically valid.