Systematic Review Of Patients' Participation In And Experiences Of Technology-based Monitoring Of Mental Health Symptoms In The Community
Authors: Sophie Walsh, Eoin Golden, Stefan Priebe
Abstract:
Objectives
Objectives To review systematically the literature on patients’ experiences of, and participation in, technology-based monitoring of mental health symptoms. This practice was defined as patients monitoring their mental health symptoms, emotions or behaviours outside of routine clinical appointments by submitting symptom data using technology, with feedback arising from the data (for example, supportive messages or symptom summaries, being sent to the patient, clinician or carer).
Design
Systematic review following PRISMA guidelines of studies evaluating technology-based symptom monitoring. Tools from narrative synthesis were used to analyse quantitative findings on participation rates and qualitative findings on patient views.
Data sources
PubMed, EMBASE, PsycINFO, BNI, CINAHL, Cochrane Registers and Web of Science electronic databases were searched using a combination of ‘psychiatry’, ‘symptom monitoring’ and ‘technology’ descriptors. A secondary hand search was performed in grey literature and references.
Results
57 papers representing 42 studies met the inclusion criteria for the review. Technology-based symptom monitoring was used for a range of mental health conditions, either independently of a specific therapeutic intervention or as an integrated component of therapeutic interventions. The majority of studies reported moderate-to-strong rates of participation, though a third reported lower rates. Qualitative feedback suggests that acceptability of monitoring is related to perceived validity, ease of practice, convenient technology, appropriate frequency and helpfulness of feedback, as well as the impact of monitoring on participants’ ability to manage health and personal relationships.
Conclusions
Such symptom monitoring practices appear to be well accepted and may be a feasible complement to clinical practice. However, there is limited availability of data and heterogeneity of studies. Future research should examine robustly patients’ role in the development and evaluation of technology-based symptom monitoring in order to maximise its clinical utility.
Citation: Sophie Walsh, Eoin Golden, Stefan Priebe Systematic Review Of Patients' Participation In And Experiences Of Technology-based Monitoring Of Mental Health Symptoms In The Community BMJ Open 2016;6:e008362 doi:10.1136/bmjopen-2015-008362
Received: 31 March 2015 Revised: 23 October 2015 Accepted: 26 October 2015 Published: 21 June 2016
Copyright: This is an Open Access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Contributors
SW designed the study with input from SP and EG. SW conducted the systematic searches of the literature, selected the studies, interpreted the data and drafted the manuscript. EG ensured the consistency of study selection and data extraction. All authors contributed to and approved the final version of the manuscript.
Competing interests None declared.
