We have recently had a paper accepted in the Journal of Affective Disorders on user perspectives of long-term remote mood monitoring. An online survey was sent to BDRN participants using our True Colours mood-monitoring system asking about their experiences of using True Colours, including viewing mood graphs, and sharing data with healthcare professionals and friends and family.
The majority of participants reported that they valued the tool with commonly reported benefits being having a visual record of mood changes, patterns/triggers and identifying early warning signs. Personalisation and ease of use were particularly highlighted as being important. Of those who had shared their graphs the majority of participants reported finding it helpful to share their graphs with their healthcare professionals and family/friends. The main perceived benefit of sharing self-monitoring mood data was aiding communication.
Our findings have implications for the use of digital mood monitoring tools for bipolar disorder in both research and clinical settings.
We would like to thank all BDRN True Colours participants for their continued support and say a very special thank you to our co-author and research champion Julia Savage.
