Projects

The mDIARY Study

Use of mHealth enhanced self-monitoring as an adjunct to the treatment of borderline personality disorder

mDiary is a project where patient self-reported data are collected through smartphones. Data is sent to a server and stored. Relevant visualisations, summed calculations and psychoeducation material can be re-accessed through patients’ smartphone, or the information can also be obtained in another tailored format for therapists through a web based interface. This info is used as an integrated part of the psychotherapy.

The mDiary study has more objectives

• To investigate whether patients using the app will be faster in acquiring DBT skills to manage their emotions compared to patients using the pen and paper version.
• To investigate whether patients using the app report fewer and less severe BPD-symptoms (e.g. less high-risk behavior, less self-harm, less negative affect, and ability to emotionally regulate) compared to patients using the pen and paper version.
• To investigate whether the measurement of positive and negative affect can be done reliably on a mobile phone. a) Does emotions measured with a mhealth version of the PANAS questionnaire and the paper version show parallel forms validity?
• To investigate whether changes in positive affect can predict improvements in DBT psychotherapy.
• To evaluate whether the use of the app is cost-effective as compared to the pen and paper version; a separate HTA-study will draw data from public registries (landspatientregistret) to assess cost-effectiveness.

Researcher

Stig Helweg-Jorgensen (Cand.psych.), Svendborg Psychiatric Hospital, Svendborg (DK). PhD. Student