A Mobile Phone Self-Monitoring Tool to Increase Emotional Self-Awareness and Reduce Depression in Young People

A Randomised Controlled Trial Investigating a Mobile Phone Self-monitoring Tool (Mobiletype) to Increase Emotional Self-awareness and Reduce Depressive Symptoms in Young People.

The mobiletype program is a mental health assessment and monitoring tool that runs on mobile phones.

The program assesses the general mental health of young people in real-time and transmits this data to a website to be reviewed by their general practitioner (GP) in consultation with their patient. The website consists of individualised feedback reports for each participant, and graphical displays of the monitoring data. The primary aims of the current project are to examine: (1) whether the process of self-monitoring via the mobiletype program increases young people's awareness of their mood and reduces depressive symptoms and (2) whether emotional self-awareness mediates the relationship between self-monitoring and depressive symptoms.

Inclusion Criteria:

• Aged 14 - 24 years of age
• Proficient English
• Patients must be deemed to have an emotional/mental health concern by their GP or be screened to have at least a mild mental health problem (a score of 16 or above) on the K10 Symptom Scale

Exclusion Criteria:

• Severe psychiatric or medical condition that prevents the person from complying with either the requirements of informed consent or the study protocol.
• Young people referred to a mental health specialist by their GP will be excluded only if they obtain a specialist appointment during the mobiletype study period (2 - 4 weeks).