Mobile Technologies in the Study, Assessment, and Treatment of Schizophrenia

Abstract

Mobile technologies are developing at a phenomenal rate and hold tremendous promise for transforming schizophrenia research and treatment. Over the last decade, mobile devices including microcomputers, mobile phones, and smartphones have become ubiquitous. The United Nations’ telecommunication agency recently reported that mobile phone subscriptions have reached almost 6 billion worldwide.1 Developing countries now account for close to 3 quarters of the mobile phones in use, and in some developed countries, the number of mobile phones already exceeds the size of the population, with many individuals owning multiple mobile devices. Recent national surveys in the United States found that mobile devices are helping bridge the digital information divide between various socioeconomic groups, as several traditionally underserved populations who typically could not afford access to home computers and internet packages now often use smartphones as their primary connection to information on the Internet. Remarkably, there is emerging evidence that many chronically homeless individuals now also use mobile devices regularly. The characteristics of contemporary mobile technologies (ie, portability, self-contained power source, increasingly user-friendly design) allow for something quite revolutionary—they enable us to transport research, assessment, and treatment out of the laboratories and clinics and into the real-time/real-world context in which individuals negotiate their daily lives and contend with chronic psychiatric illnesses and functional impairment. As infrastructure for mobile telecommunication continues to develop globally, it will create opportunities for far-reaching implementation of evidence-based interventions and wide-scale dissemination of information and resources in a manner that is unprecedented.