There is good news for parents of children who have been affected by teen depression. Researchers at Northwestern University are on the verge of developing a smartphone that is capable of finding out when children are depressed and urging them to seek the help of friends.
Various apps that may help teens with depression
Researchers who belong to the Feinberg-School-of-Medicine are working to find out various web-based, virtual and mobile technologies for treating depression and similar other mental health disorders.
There are other apps and projects to help children with teen depression and they include a virtual therapist, a medicine-bottle that may remind the children to take their antidepressant medications on time and that may tell the doctor if there is a need to adjust the dosage and a social network that is web-based and that can help those who have survived cancer in relieving their sadness or stress-related issues.
Smartphone
Among the apps that are currently in the making, a smartphone is noteworthy because the phone can spot the depression symptoms with the help of the data on its sensor. The smartphone will be able to interpret the location of the person and using its accelerometer, will know the person’s activity level also. The phone can find out the social context as well as the mood of the person as well. If the smartphone senses that the person remains in isolation, it will immediately send suggestions to get in touch with friends or see them. Makers of this app have christened it as Mobilyze and they are still tweaking its technology.
The medicine bottle
On the other hand, the medicine bottle that is in the development process will monitor the intake of antidepressants daily for reminding the person to take them on time and without fail. Thus the problem of non-consumption of medicines can be solved with this bottle. Likewise, it can help in the follow-up process by doctor.
The bottle will have a mobile app also that keeps track of the depressive symptoms of the patient and also the side effects of the medications taken by the patient. This is for providing tailored advice so that such avoidable issues can be managed. These details may be useful to the doctor also for adjusting dosage of the medications, if necessary. The MedLink system of which the bottle is a feature will be useful for improving the medication adherence of those patients who suffer from schizophrenia or HIV.
The virtual-programmable-human
The virtual-programmable-human that is being worked on will teach children with teen depression as well as adults with this problem as to how they can socially interact with others and how they can assert themselves. These skills will not only help in combating the problem of depression but in preventing the problem as well. Especially kids, who are not willing to visit a therapist, can be treated with this app.
Early intervention and appropriate apps will give the best results
If parents find that their children have difficulties in social interactions, they can prevent teen depression if they take early action and make use of the appropriate apps.