‘Help for trauma from the app stores?’ A systematic review and standardised rating of apps for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
Open accessAbstract
Background: Mobile health applications (apps) are considered to complement traditional psychological treatments for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). However, the use for clinical practice and quality of available apps is unknown.Objective: To assess the general characteristics, therapeutic background, content, and quality of apps for PTSD and to examine their concordance with established PTSD treatment and self-help methods.Method: A web crawler systematically searched for apps targeting PTSD in the British Google Play and Apple iTunes stores. Two independent researchers rated the apps using the Mobile App Rating Scale (MARS). The content of high-quality apps was checked for concordance with psychological treatment and self-help methods extracted from current literature on PTSD treatment.Results: Out of 555 identified apps, 69 met the inclusion criteria. The overall app quality based on the MARS was medium (M = 3.36, SD = 0.65). Most apps (50.7%) were based on cognitive behavioural therapy and offered a wide range of content, including established psychological PTSD treatment methods such as processing of trauma-related emotions and beliefs, relaxation exercises, and psychoeducation. Notably, data protection and privacy standards were poor in most apps and only one app (1.4%) was scientifically evaluated in a randomized controlled trial.Conclusions: High-quality apps based on established psychological treatment techniques for PTSD are available in commercial app stores. However, users are confronted with great difficulties in identifying useful high-quality apps and most apps lack an evidence-base. Commercial distribution channels do not exploit the potential of apps to complement the psychological treatment of PTSD.
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The study performed an independent scientific evaluation of a commercially available product, which seems important given the plethora of health apps that have not been scientifically reviewed.
“Eventually, we performed an independent scientific evaluation of a commercially available product, which seems important given the plethora of health apps that have not been scientifically reviewed [14,15].”
From Diagnostic Performance of an App-Based Symptom Checker in Mental Disorders: Comparative Study in Psychotherapy Outpatients (2022) · cites this paper as [15]
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An Overview of Smartphone Apps
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Development and validation of the Turkish version of the Mobile App Rating Scale – MARS-TR
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Low-Intensity Interventions and EMDR Therapy
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A systematic quality rating of available mobile health apps for borderline personality disorder
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Self-citationExamining the Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing Flash Technique on Racial Trauma
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A Trauma Support App for Young People: Co-design and Usability Study
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Perceptions and Experiences of Renew: an Exposure-Based Mobile App for Posttraumatic Stress
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Ranked Apps for Depression by MARS on Android and Apple Store: A review (Preprint)Preprint
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- Authors
- Sander, L. B., Schorndanner, J., Terhorst, Y., Spanhel, K., Pryss, R., Baumeister, H., & Messner, E.-M.
- Affiliations
- University of Freiburg (DE)
- Universität Ulm (DE)
- University of Würzburg (DE)
- Corresponding author
- Sander, Lasse Bosse
- ORCID
- Venue
- European Journal of Psychotraumatology
- Publisher
- Informa UK Limited
- Published
- 2020-01-09
- Volume
- 11
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 1701788-1701788
- ISSN
- 2000-8066 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC6968629
- OpenAlex
- W3000028621
- Cited by
- 102
- References
- 68
- Citations by year
- 2026: 5 · 2025: 10 · 2024: 18 · 2023: 20 · 2022: 12 · 2021: 25 · 2020: 11 · 2018: 1
- FWCI
- 2.67
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- European Journal of Psychotraumatology (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (Open Access Fund)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Applied Psychology › Digital Mental Health Interventions
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Research
- Health Sciences › Health Professions › General Health Professions › Mobile Health and mHealth Applications
- Keywords
- post-traumatic stress disorder, mobile health apps, app quality, Mobile App Rating Scale, cognitive behavioral therapy, self-help intervention, App Store, privacy and data protection, evidence base, psychological intervention
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