Is MoodMission all it’s cracked up to be? Tests reveal, yes!
In August 2016, a mobile phone app designed in part by MICCN researchers and named MoodMission was launched.
Since then, the app has been helping people cope with low moods and anxiety, and has achieved over 50,000 downloads.
More recently, MoodMission has surpassed a test for efficacy, and has been rated of a significantly higher quality than the majority of other health apps.
Many smartphone apps for mental health are available to the public, but few have been scientifically tested for their actual effectiveness.
A recent randomised control trial conducted by MICCN researchers compared the efficacy of three publicly-available mental health apps to a waitlist control condition in a community sample of 226 participants. MoodMisson was one of these apps, and was shown to increase mental wellbeing and decrease depression. It was also shown that mental health apps appear to be an effective solution for improving public mental health, notably by improving users' confidence in their ability to cope.
Read the full paper, “A randomized controlled trial of three smartphone apps for enhancing public mental health”, here.
MoodMission was designed to deliver evidence-based Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT) strategies in the form of real-time, momentary responses to user-reported low moods and anxiety.
As part of MoodMission’s development process, 44 participants obtained early access to the app and completed the Mobile Application Rating Scale (MARS; Hides et al., 2014) for usability testing and feedback. MoodMission was rated significantly higher than standardised health app norms on the majority of the domains, including Entertainment, Interest, Customisation, Target Group, Graphics, Visual Appeal, Quality of Information, Quantity of Information, Visual Information, Credibility of Source, Recommendation to Use, Estimated Frequency of Use, and Overall Rating.
It is clear that MoodMission is delivering on clinical applications, but it also holds promise as a research tool to collect real-world data on the effectiveness of different CBT strategies. Other clinical applications to investigate include using it as an augmentation to clinician-delivered therapy.
Read the full paper, “Development and Pilot Evaluation of Smartphone-Delivered Cognitive Behavior Therapy Strategies for Mood- and Anxiety-Related Problems: MoodMission”, here.
For more information on MoodMission, view the recent piece by Monash Lens, visit http://moodmission.com/, or contact MoodMission Founder, Dr David Bakker, at david@moodmissionapp.com.