Ecological momentary assessment: what it is and why it is a method of the future in clinical psychopharmacology
Open accessAbstract
Current methods of assessment in clinical psychopharmacology have several serious disadvantages, particularly for the study of social functioning. We aimed to review the strengths and weaknesses of current methods used in clinical psychopharmacology and to compare them with a group of methods, developed by personality/social psychologists, termed ecological momentary assessment (EMA), which permit the research participant to report on symptoms, affect and behaviour close in time to experience and which sample many events or time periods. EMA has a number of advantages over more traditional methods for the assessment of patients in clinical psychopharmacological studies. It can both complement and, in part, replace existing methods. EMA methods will permit more sensitive assessments and will enable more wide-ranging and detailed measurements of mood and behaviour. These types of methods should be adopted more widely by clinical psychopharmacology researchers.
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The ability to overcome memory bias and to capture variations over time contributes to increasing the ecological validity of ecological momentary assessment.
“These two factors contribute to increasing the ecological validity of the EMA (70, 76, 77).”
From Mobile intervention for individuals with psychosis, dual disorders, and their common comorbidities: A literature review (2019) · cites this paper as [77]
EMA has been used in clinical trials only to a very limited extent.
“This approach has been used in clinical trials,97 but only to a very limited extent, leading some to describe it as a “neglected methodology.”98”
From Precision clinical trials: a framework for getting to precision medicine for neurobehavioural disorders (2021) · cites this paper as [97]
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- Authors
- Moskowitz, D. S., & Young, S. N.
- Affiliations
- McGill University (CA)
- Venue
- Journal of Psychiatry and Neuroscience
- Publisher
- Canadian Science Publishing
- Published
- 2006-01
- Volume
- 31
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 13-20
- ISSN
- 1180-4882 (ISSN-L)
- 1488-2434
- PMC
- PMC1325062
- OpenAlex
- W2188070812
- Cited by
- 457
- References
- 7
- Citations by year
- 2026: 24 · 2025: 19 · 2024: 36 · 2023: 36 · 2022: 40 · 2021: 37 · 2020: 34 · 2019: 32 · 2018: 39 · 2017: 28 · 2016: 27 · 2015: 22 · 2014: 16 · 2013: 9 · 2012: 15
- FWCI
- 11.31
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Locations
- Journal of Psychiatry and Neuroscience (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- PubMed
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Mental Health Research Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Mental Health via Writing
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Anxiety, Depression, Psychometrics, Treatment, Cognitive Processes
- Keywords
- ecological momentary assessment, clinical psychopharmacology, social functioning, mood measurement, affective states, behaviour measurement, assessment methods, longitudinal data collection
- MeSH terms
- Mental Disorders, Data Collection, Forecasting, Humans, Psychopharmacology, Surveys and Questionnaires, Social Behavior
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