There are apps for losing weight, and apps that encourage people to exercise more. Then there are apps aimed at improving your mental health.
A growing number of mobile applications are designed to help people track and manage their emotions and behavior in much the same way that fitness apps track physical activity and diet. Some have been rigorously tested, such as Mood 24/7, developed at Johns Hopkins University and tested for its ability to help manage depression and mood disorders. Others, like Headspace, which was developed for the consumer market and is hugely popular, have never been put through the rigors of a clinical trial.
In fact, less than 1% of commercially available mental-health apps have been studied for their efficacy. That may be changing, though. There are currently 114 studies of mental-health apps registered in ClinicalTrials.gov’s database of behavior and mental-disorder clinical research studies.
[For more of this story, written by Amy Westervelt, go to http://www.wsj.com/articles/me...herapists-1443407477]
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