Cited by 247Digital Mental Health InterventionsMobile Health and mHealth ApplicationsHealth, Technology, Consumer Behavior

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State of the Field of Mental Health Apps

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Neary, Martha, Schueller, Stephen M.·2018·Cognitive and Behavioral Practice

DOI 10.1016/j.cbpra.2018.01.002PMC PMC7584258

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Abstract

Mental health apps offer unique opportunities for self-management of mental health and well-being in mobile, cost-effective ways. There is an abundance of apps available to consumers, but selecting a useful one presents a challenge. Most available apps are not supported by empirical evidence and thus consumers have access to a range of unreviewed apps, the benefits of which are not known or supported. While user ratings exist, and are likely to be considered by consumers when selecting an app, they do not actually yield information on app suitability. A possible alternative way for consumers to choose an app would be to use an app review platform. A number of attempts have been made to construct such a platform, and this paper introduces PsyberGuide, which offers a step towards providing objective and actionable information for publicly available mental health apps.

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Ben-Zeev, D., Brian, R. M., Jonathan, G., Razzano, L., Pashka, N., Carpenter-Song, E. A., Drake, R. E., & Schrer, E. A. (in press). Randomized controlled trial of mHealth vs. clinic-based interventions for serious mental illness: Patient engagement, satisfaction, and clinical outcomes. Schizophrenia Bulletin.

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Background
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Hovasapian, A., Huyghe, V. E. I., Schlegel, K., & Fontaine, J. R. J. (2022) · Open Research Europe · doi:10.12688/openreseurope.14391.1 · Cited by 1
Second Mind: Considerações Ético‐Legais sobre a Digitalização em Saúde Mental no Contexto Português
Queiroz, G. (2022) · Revista Portuguesa de Psiquiatria e Saúde Mental · doi:10.51338/rppsm.332 · Cited by 4
Exploring Collective Medical Knowledge and Tensions in Online ADHD Communities
Eagle, T. (2022) · International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS) · doi:10.1145/3517428.3550409 · Cited by 4
Stakeholders' views and opinions on existing guidelines on “How to Choose Mental Health Apps”
Khan, W., Jebanesan, B., Ahmed, S., Trimmer, C., Agic, B., Safa, F., Ashraf, A., Tuck, A. C., Kavic, K., Wadhawan, S., et al. (2023) · Frontiers in Public Health · doi:10.3389/fpubh.2023.1251050 · Cited by 4
Psikolojik Yardım Hizmetlerindeki Mobil Uygulamalarla İlgili Bir İnceleme
Kabadayı, F., & Güven, M. (2023) · Türk Eğitim Bilimleri Dergisi · doi:10.37217/tebd.1291285 · Cited by 2
Mit Apps gegen den Tinnitus? Ein systematisches Review zu Qualität, Interventionselementen und Techniken der Verhaltensänderung
Rinn, A., Hannibal, S., Goetsch, S., Weise, C., & Lehr, D. (2023) · Bundesgesundheitsblatt - Gesundheitsforschung - Gesundheitsschutz · doi:10.1007/s00103-023-03805-1 · Cited by 2
Initial Requirements for the Prototyping of an App for a Psychosocial Rehabilitation Project: An Integrative Review
Campos, F. A. A. C., Feitosa, F. B., Moll, M. F., Reis, I. D. O., García, J. C. S., & Ventura, C. A. A. (2025) · International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health · doi:10.3390/ijerph22020310 · Cited by 2
“…them would be to adapt them to a mobile mHealth support technology, as this resource allows streamlining traditional processes in mental health [6–8], promoting the exercise of human rights, citizenship, accessibility to care, and mental health services, which can reduce inequalities and social…”
Stop Anxiety: Tackling Anxiety in the Academic Campus Through an mHealth Multidisciplinary User-Centred Approach
Ferreira, D., Melo, D., Santo, A., Silva, P., Soares, S. C., & Silva, S. (2020) · Lecture notes of the Institute for Computer Sciences, Social Informatics and Telecommunications Engineering · doi:10.1007/978-3-030-49289-2_9 · Cited by 2
Mobile Emotion Healthcare System Applying Sentiment analysis
Wang, S., Chiang, I.-E., Kuo, A. M.-H., & Lin, J. (2022) · IEEE International Conference on Big Data (BigData) · doi:10.1109/bigdata55660.2022.10021053 · Cited by 2
Telemedicine solutions for patients with mental disorders: a Delphi study and review of mobile applications in virtual stores
Marques, G., Gil, R. S., Franco, M., & Díez, I. D. L. T. (2021) · Informatics for Health and Social Care · doi:10.1080/17538157.2021.1988956 · Cited by 2
Analysis of cognitive behavioural therapy apps for generalised anxiety disorder: Evidence-based content and user experience
Munteanu, T., Kannis‐Dymand, L., Millear, P. M. R., & Jones, M. (2024) · Cyberpsychology Journal of Psychosocial Research on Cyberspace · doi:10.5817/cp2024-4-6 · Cited by 1
“Further, an apps ’ empirical basis and clinical usefulness may be unrelated to its popularity and consumer ratings (Kertz et al., 2017; Neary & Schueller, 2018; Wasil et al., 2019).”
Background
Mental Health Monitoring for Young People Through Mood Apps: Protocol for a Scoping Review and Systematic Search in App Stores
Boege, S., Milne‐Ives, M., Ananthakrishnan, A., Cong, C., Sharma, A., Anderson, D. O., & Meinert, E. (2024) · JMIR Research Protocols · doi:10.2196/56400 · Cited by 2
“The landscape of currently available apps is diverse, with an estimate of over 20,000 mental health apps available in app stores [15,16].”
Impact of an App-Based Resilience Training on Enhancing Stress Regulation and Mental Health
Lenger, M., Schönthaler, E. M. D., Hantke, A., Dalkner, N., Guggemos, S., Pszeida, M., Mosbacher, J. A., Draxler, S., Lutz, T., Russegger, S., et al. (2025) · Neuropsychobiology · doi:10.1159/000544149 · Cited by 3
“The ﬁ eld of mobile health services is booming with between 10,000 and 20,000 mental health apps currently available [28], but it is estimated that only about 3 – 4% is evidence-based.”
Personalized Mobile Apps for Mental Health and Well-Being in the General Population: A Systematic Review
Dandil, Y., & Kingston, J. L. (2025) · Journal of Technology in Human Services · doi:10.1080/15228835.2025.2491347 · Cited by 2
“…is an abundance of MHapps that may still be available for non-clinical populations, the vast majority of these MHapps are not empirically evidenced (Neary & Schueller, 2018), Personalized digital health interventions may also help improve the well-being of a subclinical population that may be…”
ZenLoop: An AI-Powered Mental Health Platform
Gangadevi, G., Ravisankar, S., & Vikash, P. (2025) · doi:10.38124/ijisrt/25aug508 · Cited by 1
Towards Culturally Competent Design: A Mulitistakeholder Study of the Adoption and Use of Teletherapy within the Hispanic Community
Yamamoto, F. R., Voida, A., & Voida, S. (2025) · Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction · doi:10.1145/3757515 · Cited by 1
“However, as mentioned by the designers we interviewed and confirmed in a recent review of mental health applications [58], most mental health technologies do not support multiple languages.”
Publicly available acceptance and commitment therapy mobile apps: Systematic search and assessment
Thapar, S., Quesada, D., & Knaüper, B. (2026) · Journal of Contextual Behavioral Science · doi:10.1016/j.jcbs.2026.100974 · Cited by 1
Use of traditional, complementary and integrative medicine in Berlin: baseline results from a substudy of the German National Cohort (NAKO)
Grabowska, W. A., Brinkhaus, B., Roll, S., Ortiz, M., Keil, T., Willich, S., Krist, L., & Witt, C. M. (2026) · BMJ Public Health · doi:10.1136/bmjph-2025-004323 · Cited by 1
AI Mental Health Support and the Case for Distributed Networked Regulation
Paterson, J. (2026) · Cambridge University Press eBooks · doi:10.1017/9781009860796 · Cited by 1
Closing the needs-access gap for young people with depression: Digital single session interventions as a promising innovation to extend existing provision
Loades, M. E., & Ching, B. C. F. (2022) · Clinical Psychology Forum · doi:10.53841/bpscpf.2022.1.360.59 · Cited by 1
Creation and evaluation of timelines for longitudinal user posts
Hills, A., Tsakalidis, A., Nanni, F., Zachos, I., & Liakata, M. (2023) · Conference of the European Chapter of the Association for Computational Linguistics · doi:10.18653/v1/2023.eacl-main.274 · Cited by 1
WhatsApp with the Evidence Base for Behavioral Parent Training Apps? A Systematic Review of Mobile Phone Applications
Mandelbaum, M. M., Rumelt, A. M. A., Wein, S. N., & Vidair, H. B. (2024) · Journal of Child and Family Studies · doi:10.1007/s10826-024-02789-z · Cited by 1
“One challenge associated with the use of apps for parenting techniques is that many parents do not inquire about the source of information in the app, nor do they have guidelines to help choose an app (Neary & Schueller, 2018).”
Emerging Connection of the Mental Health and Well-Being Axis with Digital Technology: A Quantitative and Qualitative Study
Andino, A. A., Koehler, J. L., & Rahman, M. (2024) · Journal of Technology in Behavioral Science · doi:10.1007/s41347-024-00396-9 · Cited by 1
“Approximately 325,000 mobile health apps are available in the app marketplace (Larson, 2018; Research2Guidance, 2017; Upadhyay et al., 2021), with at least 20,000 of those focused on mental health (Neary & Schueller, 2018; Torous et al., 2018).”
An explorative review of youth mental health apps for prevention and promotion
Michel, T., Slovák, P., & Fitzpatrick, G. (2019) · doi:10.4108/eai.20-5-2019.2283578 · Cited by 1
Curating the Digital Mental Health Landscape With a Guide to Behavioral Health Apps: A County-Driven Resource
Montgomery, R. M., Brandysky, L., Neary, M., Eikey, E. V., Mark, G. J., Schneider, M. L., Stadnick, N. A., Zheng, K., Mukamel, D. B., Sorkin, D. H., et al. (2021) · Psychiatric Services · doi:10.1176/appi.ps.202000803 · Cited by 2
Self-citation
Digital Technology Interventions for Preventing and Treating Youth Depression
Lira, D., & Martínez, V. (2022) · Depression and personality · doi:10.1007/978-3-031-13029-8_4 · Cited by 1
Multivariate Time-Series Signals of Affect Dynamics and Neural Oscillations with Suggested Applications to Technology to Identify Depression RiskPreprint
Jamal, R., & Kullar, M. (2022) · doi:10.31234/osf.io/c957d · Cited by 1
Providing Support for Use of Digital Mental Health Interventions: A Systematic Meta-Review (Preprint)Preprint
Werntz, A. J., Amado, S., Jasman, M., Ervin, A., & Rhodes, J. E. (2022) · doi:10.2196/preprints.42864 · Cited by 1
Exploring digitally gamified therapies for anxiety
Patnaik, A. (2022) · doi:10.17760/d20471084 · Cited by 1
The feasibility, acceptability and efficacy of an app-based intervention (the coping camp) in reducing stress among chinese school adolescents: protocol of a cluster randomised controlled tria v1Preprint
Zhou, X., provided, S. E. N., & provided, M. B. N. (2023) · doi:10.17504/protocols.io.n92ldmz69l5b/v1 · Cited by 1
mHealth for Mental Health
Lau, N., Kola, L., Zhao, X., Asafo, S. M., Attah, D. A., & Ben‐Zeev, D. (2025) · Wiley eBooks · doi:10.1002/9781394179909.ch14 · Cited by 2
Editorial: Advancing digital mental health for youth
Balaskas, A., Cai, W., Bond, R., & Doherty, K. (2026) · Frontiers in Digital Health · doi:10.3389/fdgth.2026.1828208 · Cited by 1
Increasing Psychiatric Treatment Engagement and Adherence in the College Population
Bardin, A., Cheney, B., & Braider, L. (2019) · Springer eBooks · doi:10.1007/978-3-030-12665-0_5 · Cited by 1
The software will see you now: The promise and peril of digital therapy
Quill, L. (2021) · Counselling and Psychotherapy Research · doi:10.1002/capr.12404 · Cited by 1
Standalone smartphone CBT-based Ecological Momentary Interventions to increase mental health - a narrative reviewPreprint
Marciniak, M. A., Shanahan, L., Rohde, J., Schulz, A., Wackerhagen, C., Kobylińska, D., Tüscher, O., Binder, H., Walter, H., Kalisch, R., et al. (2020) · doi:10.31234/osf.io/r4vwz
Digital Mental Health Intervention Uptake Among Distressed New Zealand High School Students in a Comprehensive Survey: Implications for Digital Help Provision
Shaw, J. (2021) · Open Access Victoria University of Wellington | Te Herenga Waka (Figshare) · doi:10.26686/wgtn.14471310.v1
P1074 就業女性の出産に関わる検討 : 周産期における環境汚染物質曝露の影響評価を意図した出生コホート調査の結果から
仲井, 邦., 鈴木, 恵., 菅原, 典., 亀尾, 聡., 村田, 勝., 黒川, 修., & 佐藤, 洋. (2005) · Sangyo Igaku
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Authors: Neary, M., & Schueller, S. M.
Affiliations: Northwestern University (US)
Corresponding author: Schueller, Stephen M.
ORCID: Neary, Martha
Schueller, Stephen M.
Venue: Cognitive and Behavioral Practice
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Published: 2018-11
Volume: 25
Issue: 4
Pages: 531-537
ISSN: 1077-7229 (ISSN-L)
DOI: 10.1016/j.cbpra.2018.01.002
PMC: PMC7584258
OpenAlex: W2789479890
Cited by: 247
References: 25
Citations by year: 2026: 19 · 2025: 30 · 2024: 28 · 2023: 44 · 2022: 39 · 2021: 37 · 2020: 24 · 2019: 18 · 2018: 7
FWCI: 26.89
Type: journal article
Language: en
Open access: green
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
Licence: www.elsevier.com/tdm/userlicense/1.0/ (tdm)
Locations: Cognitive and Behavioral Practice (publishedVersion)
PubMed (publishedVersion)
PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
eScholarship (California Digital Library) (submittedVersion)
Funders: National Institute of Mental Health (K08MH102336)
Topics: Social Sciences › Psychology › Applied Psychology › Digital Mental Health Interventions
Health Sciences › Health Professions › General Health Professions › Mobile Health and mHealth Applications
Health Sciences › Health Professions › Health Information Management › Health, Technology, Consumer Behavior
Keywords: mental health apps, app selection, user ratings, mobile mental health

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