![]() ![]() Additionally, medications and psychotherapies may carry some level of stigma (particularly among younger people), which further limits their effectiveness 9, 10.įurthermore, although these therapies demonstrate high clinical efficacy for reducing symptoms, they may not always bring about full and sustained remission in those treated. ![]() For instance, access to mental health care remains limited, as almost half of the world's population lives in countries where there is less than one psychiatrist per 100,000 people 6, and continued shortage in mental health care staff is expected for both the near and long term future 7, 8. However, there are many barriers towards both of these treatment methods. While the choice of pharmacotherapy or psychotherapy depends on many factors, for most individuals with mild or moderate depression they may be nearly equivalent 5. Thus, the disorder carries a high cost for both the individual and the society, particularly when considering the economic burden incurred through clinical care and lost productivity 4.ĭepression is a potentially treatable condition, with a range of available medications and psychological interventions that are supported by robust clinical evidence. Beyond the personal suffering, depression is associated with unemployment, poor physical health, impaired social functioning and, in its most severe forms, suicide 3. In countries like the US, 9% of the population may have depression at any one time 2. Future research should aim to distil which aspects of these technologies produce beneficial effects, and for which populations.ĭepression is now recognized as a leading cause of global disability, impacting over 300 million people around the world 1. Overall, these results indicate that smartphone devices are a promising self-management tool for depression. The use of mood monitoring softwares, or interventions based on cognitive behavioral therapy, or apps incorporating aspects of mindfulness training, did not affect significantly study effect sizes. The studies of cognitive training apps had a significantly smaller effect size on depression outcomes (p=0.004) than those of apps focusing on mental health. Effects from smartphone-only interventions were greater than from interventions which incorporated other human/computerized aspects along the smartphone component, although the difference was not statistically significant. Smartphone interventions had a moderate positive effect in comparison to inactive controls (g=0.56, 95% CI: 0.38-0.74), but only a small effect in comparison to active control conditions (g=0.22, 95% CI: 0.10-0.33). Depressive symptoms were reduced significantly more from smartphone apps than control conditions (g=0.38, 95% CI: 0.24-0.52, p<0.001), with no evidence of publication bias. An electronic database search in May 2017 identified 18 eligible randomized controlled trials of 22 smartphone apps, with outcome data from 3,414 participants. Thus, we conducted the first meta-analysis of smartphone apps for depressive symptoms. ![]() Despite multi-sector investment along with wide-scale advertising and availability to the general population, the evidence supporting the use of smartphone apps in the treatment of depression has not been empirically evaluated. Acuvate Software won the Best Use of Emerging Tech category – its first ever award.The rapid advances and adoption of smartphone technology presents a novel opportunity for delivering mental health interventions on a population scale. Wayra received the techies 2017 gong for incubator of the year, while WPS Office Software and DocuSign received awards for their mobile tech products. Northern Ireland's Digital Transformation Service was recognised for its work to digitise citizen services. The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists were honoured for their pioneering use of tech for the Panama Papers project, which required them to analyse 2.6 terabytes of data and 11.5 million files. Splunk managed to scoop three awards including Best Cloud Technology of the Year, Best Security Technology of the Year and The techies 2017 Grand Prix award. ![]() GoCardless, Splunk and Wayra were among the big winners at the techies 2017 last night, Techworld's annual awards to celebrate innovation, disruption and entrepreneurship across the UK technology scene.Ī number of startups won awards including Moneybox, Dataiku, Metail, Satchel and Genius Hub, while GoCardless and RNF Digital Innovation were handed prizes in recognition of their development teams. ![]()
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