Ecological Momentary Assessment of Bipolar Disorder Episodes with a Smartphone Application: Study Protocol

Diagnosis of Awake Bruxism (AB) is problematic due to the inability to use continuous recordings during daytime activities. Recently, a new semi-instrumental approach was suggested, viz., an Ecological Momentary Assessment (EMA), with the use of a smartphone application. With the application subjects are requested to report, at least 12 times per day, the status of their masticatory muscle activity (relaxed muscles, jaw bracing without tooth contact, teeth contact, teeth clenching or teeth grinding). The aim of the present study was to compare the EMA to the assessment of AB as defined by a single point self-report. The most frequent condition recorded by the EMA was relaxed muscles (ca. 60%) and the least frequent one - Teeth grinding (0.6 %). The relaxed muscle condition also showed the lowest coefficient of variance over a 7day period of report. Additionally, only the relaxed muscles and the Jaw bracing conditions presented an acceptable ability to discriminate between AB positive and AB negative subjects, as defined by single point self-report questions. The combination between self-report and EMA may have a potential to promote our ability to diagnose AB. We suggest to re-consider the conditions of Teeth contact and Teeth grinding while using EMA to evaluate AB.

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Electronic Ecological Momentary Assessment (EMA) in youth with bipolar disorder: Demographic and clinical predictors of electronic EMA adherence

Journal of Psychiatric Research ◽

10.1016/j.jpsychires.2019.05.026 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 116 ◽

pp. 14-18 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Anda Gershon ◽

Christopher N. Kaufmann ◽

John Torous ◽

Colin Depp ◽

Terence A. Ketter

Keyword(s):

Bipolar Disorder ◽

Ecological Momentary Assessment ◽

Clinical Predictors ◽

Ecological Momentary ◽

Momentary Assessment

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Use of ecological momentary assessment to detect variability in mood, sleep and stress in bipolar disorder

BMC Research Notes ◽

10.1186/s13104-019-4834-7 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 12 (1) ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Han Li ◽

Dahlia Mukherjee ◽

Venkatesh Basappa Krishnamurthy ◽

Caitlin Millett ◽

Kelly A. Ryan ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Bipolar Disorder ◽

Ecological Momentary Assessment ◽

Sleep Time ◽

Control Group ◽

Social Stressors ◽

Parallel Group ◽

Healthy Control ◽

The Difference ◽

Ecological Momentary ◽

Momentary Assessment

Abstract Objective Our aim was to study within-person variability in mood, cognition, energy, and impulsivity measured in an Ecological Momentary Assessment paradigm in bipolar disorder by using modern statistical techniques. Exploratory analyses tested the relationship between bipolar disorder symptoms and hours of sleep, and levels of pain, social and task-based stress. We report an analysis of data from a two-arm, parallel group study (bipolar disorder group N = 10 and healthy control group N = 10, with 70% completion rate of 14-day surveys). Surveys of bipolar disorder symptoms, social stressors and sleep hours were completed on a smartphone at unexpected times in an Ecological Momentary Assessment paradigm twice a day. Multi-level models adjusted for potential subject heterogeneity were adopted to test the difference between the bipolar disorder and health control groups. Results Within-person variability of mood, energy, speed of thoughts, impulsivity, pain and perception of skill of tasks was significantly higher in the bipolar disorder group compared to health controls. Elevated bipolar disorder symptom domains in the evening were associated with reduced sleep time that night. Stressors were associated with worsening of bipolar disorder symptoms. Detection of symptoms when an individual is experiencing difficulty allows personalized, focused interventions.

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Ecological momentary assessment using patient smartphones: a pilot study in depression (Preprint)

10.2196/preprints.14179 ◽

2019 ◽

Author(s):

Guillaume Delval ◽

Redwan Maatoug ◽

Terence Brochu ◽

Benjamin Pitrat ◽

Bruno Millet

Keyword(s):

Real Time ◽

Ecological Momentary Assessment ◽

Large Scale ◽

Smartphone Application ◽

Or Efficiency ◽

Patient’S Satisfaction ◽

Ecological Momentary ◽

Momentary Assessment ◽

Graphic Rendering

UNSTRUCTURED Background: Ecological Momentary Assessment (EMA) is a promising tool in the management of psychiatric disorders and particularly depression; it allows for a real-time evaluation of symptoms and an earlier detection of relapse or efficiency of the treatment associated. The generalization of the smartphone in modern societies also offers a new large-scale support for EMA. Objective: The present study aims to evaluate the feasibility in terms of compliance as well as graphic rendering and user experience of an EMA with patients suffering from unipolar depression. Method: Eleven patients at La Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital were followed during 28 days with the help of a smartphone application installed on the patient’s personal smartphones. The results of the real-time collected data were reviewed during three follow-up consultations, by a psychiatrist interacting with the patient, on a “dashboard” aggregating all the patient’s data in a user-friendly manner. Results: Seven patients out of eleven have followed the protocol for its total length of time. Two patients continue to fill in the questionnaires without showing for the consultation which suggests that EMA is easy to use with a good compliance. The global response rate to the questionnaires was 58% with an average follow-up duration of 21 days out of 28 days in total. In light of the results in terms of graphic rendering and patient’s satisfaction, we strongly believe that EMA should be the focus on follow-up and early intervention studies.

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