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Comments culled from the clinical samples such as, \u2018Thanks, that really helped me,\u2019 made it clear that even though participants knew they weren\u2019t interacting with another person, they felt better by the end of the study. \u201cDrawing their attention to their illness and engaging them in introspection multiple times a day gave them the sense that someone was interested in them and supportive,\u201d Ben-Zeev recalls. \u201cWe were asking questions but not in real time and they knew that,\u201d he adds. \u201cBut they still thought it was helpful.\u201d<\/p>\n
The idea of using a mobile device to treat patients with mental health issues captured Ben-Zeev\u2019s imagination and he wondered: What would happen if we created a treatment model using mobile technology?<\/p>\n
Flash forward a few years and Ben-Zeev, an assistant professor of psychiatry at Dartmouth\u2019s Geisel School of Medicine, is at the forefront of developing mobile health (mHealth) interventions for people with serious mental illness. His work focuses on the complex challenge of integrating effective health technologies into traditional systems of health care, developing psychosocial interventions for psychosis, and testing those applications for efficacy.<\/p>\n
He first developed basic text message self-management interventions for schizophrenia patients, which eventually led to the creation of FOCUS, a sophisticated smartphone system designed to help individuals manage their illness. Schizophrenia is an illness that causes severe mental disturbances that disrupt normal thought, speech, and behavior. Symptoms include delusions, thought disorders, and hallucinations\u2014people may hear voices, believe others are reading their minds, controlling their thoughts, or plotting to harm them, and also have difficulties in achieving goals.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe idea is that you now have therapeutic reach that extends beyond a physical clinic and may be used in a way that face-to-face interaction can\u2019t,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s true that the first route of intervention for people with psychosis is anti-psychotic medication, Ben-Zeev says, but many either don\u2019t adhere to their medications or don\u2019t benefit from them, and a lot of people don\u2019t want to take medications. \u201cThe reason we are using smartphones, is that you don\u2019t have to wait until your once-a-week or once-a-month psychotherapeutic session,\u201d he explains. \u201cOnce downloaded, you can use the app\u2019s tools to address some of your problems wherever and whenever you choose. If you are struggling with auditory hallucinations, which can happen at any time, you can get the support you need even if you are waiting at a bus stop,\u201d Ben-Zeev adds. Mobile phone use among people with severe psychiatric disabilities is not that different from the general population, he notes.<\/p>\n
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