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ICT4Depression: your phone as your counsellor
Pepijn van de Ven, Elaine McGovern, John J. Guiry, John Nelson
Ambient Wireless Assisted Living Lab
pepijn.vandeven@ul.ie; elaine.mcgovern@ul.ie; johnj.guiry@ul.ie; john.nelson@ul.ie
Abstract
The paper reports initial results obtained in the FP7
funded ICT4Depression project, which aims to develop
a mobile phone based system for the treatment of
depression. UL’s role in this project is the development
of an Android application which is used to present
treatment modules to the patient, to gather biomedical
sensor data and to record the patient’s activity and
mobility patterns.
1. Introduction
Major depression is currently the fourth disorder
worldwide in terms of disease burden, and is expected
to be the disorder with the highest disease burden in
high-income countries by 2030. Estimated costs of
depression are annually 177 and 147 million euro per 1
million inhabitants for major and minor depression
respectively. Current treatment methods for depressive
disorders can reduce the burden of this disease by
approximately one third. ICT4Depression is an FP7
funded project with partners from 5 EU member states
that aims to reduce the disease burden significantly
further. To this end the ICT4Depression consortium has
set out to develop a system for the provision of online
and mobile treatment of depression.
2. Project Description
Through a close collaboration between psychologists
and technology partners, a mobile system has been
specified for the provision of depression treatment to
the user whilst minimally changing the user’s normal
daily patterns. Internet based treatments for depression
have been used for some time and it has been shown
that this approach is as effective as face-to-face
treatment of depression (Andersson et al., 2005). Hence
these treatments are now being adapted for presentation
on smart phones. Furthermore, use is made of the
mobile phone as a sensor manager; several sensors,
including the phone itself, collect data on the user’s
progression and report this information to the
ICT4Depression system. In 2012 the system will be
used in trials with 50 patients in the Netherlands and 50
patients in Sweden, thus thoroughly testing the system
with real patients.
3. UL role
UL’s role in the ICT4Depression is pivotal as UL is
responsible for the application running on the mobile
phone. A first version of this application has been
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developed and combines four aspects of the system:
1. A patient application to interface with the system.
As part of the treatment, the user is asked to think
about and report on positive and negative feelings,
activities that make the user feel good or bad and
other factors that influence mental health.
2. A mobility monitor. Using the smart phone’s builtin
sensors (accelerometers, magneto-meters and
GPS) the phone keeps track of the user’s activity
and mobility patterns. This information is useful to
determine whether the user adheres to activity goals
set as part of the treatment, but also as a measure for
treatment progression; increased activity levels
often correspond with improved mental health.
3. A sensor manager to collect data via Bluetooth. A
set of Bluetooth sensors is used to collect data on
the user’s heart rate, breathing rate and skin
conductance. These parameters can be correlated
with emotions experienced and are thus expected to
provide new insights in the user’s mental state.
4. A medication adherence application. An important
aspect of the treatment of depression is the use of
medication. This medication will only be effective if
taken regularly and without fail. To monitor
medication intake, a smart pill box is used that
records when medication is taken. The resulting
information is visualized for the user in the
adherence application.
Whereas the Bluetooth sensors and medication
adherence system are provided by SME’s, the
integration of both systems is done by UL. To allow for
an end-user driven approach to development of the user
interface, a module generator has been developed. This
generator allows the psychologists to easily design and
implement new treatment modules that can be presented
to the user on a mobile phone or on a pc. New
algorithms for activity and mobility monitoring using
the mobile phone are being developed. These make use
of time- and frequency-domain information to elicit as
much relevant information from the data as possible.
Future work will focus on the use of voice recordings
made with the mobile phone to assess the emotional
state of the user.
References
(Andersson et al, 2005) Andersson, G., Bergstrom,
J., Hollandare, F., Carlbring, P., Kaldo, V.,
Ekselius, L. (2005). Internet-based self-help for
depression: randomised controlled trial. British
Journal of Psychiatry, 187, 456-61.