DIPNOT: A Research Project to Improve Psychotherapeutic Treatment for People with Depression

DIPNOT: A Research Project to Improve Psychotherapeutic Treatment for People with Depression

Oct 25, 2022

Monsenso is proud to be part of the Development of an Intervention for Persistent Not On Track (DIPNOT) research project that aims to improve psychotherapeutic treatment offered to people with depression in psychiatry.

Though often said to be one of the “happiest countries on earth”, depression is no rare illness in Denmark. Did you know, that approximately 15-25% of all females and 7-12% of all males living in Denmark experience depression at least once in their life? [1].

After diagnosis, patients with depression are often offered group-based cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) in outpatient psychiatry in Denmark [2]. However, around 50% of depressed patients participating in group-based CBT do not actually feel their symptoms improving, or even worsening during the therapy [2].

The DIPNOT research project, which was started in 2021 and continues until 2024, hence aims to design an intervention for patients with depression who are not improving during the course of their therapy. The idea is to monitor patients and the progression of their symptoms via a digital health application (e.g., using clinical questionnaires) and identify the patients who are not doing well during the therapy [2].

The Monsenso digital health solution is currently being used for this purpose in the DIPNOT project conducted by ph.d. student Jasmin Rejaye Gryesten. It facilitates the identification of worsening depressive symptoms and offers various possibilities for clinicians to provide their patients with digital tools that can help their recoveries – such as exercises and psychoeducational content.

At Monsenso, we are proud to be part of this exciting journey toward offering better mental health to more people by being able to cater to patients’ needs more individually.

If you want to learn more about the DIPNOT project, watch this video!
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About Monsenso
Monsenso is an innovative technology company offering a digital health solution used for decentralised trials, remote patient monitoring and treatment support. Our mission is to contribute to improved health for more people at lower costs by supporting treatment digitally and leveraging patient-reported outcomes data. Our solution helps optimise the treatment and gives a detailed overview of an individual’s health through the collection of outcome, adherence and behavioural data. It connects individuals, carers and health care providers to enable personalised treatment, remote care and early intervention. We collaborate with health and social care, pharmaceuticals and leading researcher worldwide in our endeavours to deliver solutions that fit into the life of patients and health care professionals. To learn more visit  www.monsenso.com

References:
[1] Kessing, L.V. (2021). ​​Depression, forekomst. Sundhed.dk.
https://www.sundhed.dk/borger/patienthaandbogen/psyke/sygdomme/depression/depression-forekomst/

[2] DIPNOT (n.d.). Development of an Intervention for Persistent Not On Track.
https://www.dipnot.dk

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World Mental Health Day 2022

World Mental Health Day 2022

Oct 10, 2022

October 10th is World Mental Health Day, aiming at shining light on the prevalence of mental ill health globally and the need to “strengthen mental health care so that the full spectrum of mental health needs is met” [1].

How common are mental illnesses?
970 million individuals worldwide, or 1 in every 8 people, had a mental illness in 2019 [2]. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, these numbers have been even more on the rise during the past two years [1]. Anxiety and depression disorders, for example, are estimated to have increased by more than 25% among the global population during the first year of the pandemic [1].

Economic costs of mental disorders
Statistics show that in 2010, mental diseases cost the global economy US$2.5 trillion in direct and indirect costs, and mental and drug use disorders made up 10.4% of the total global illness burden [3]. By 2030, it is anticipated that the direct and indirect costs of mental illnesses will have doubled – without taking into account expenses related to mental problems that originate outside of the healthcare system, such as legal expenses brought on by the consumption of illegal drugs [3].

Stigmatization of ill mental health
More than half of those suffering from mental illness do not obtain treatment. People often put off or postpone getting therapy out of fear of being treated “differently or […] losing their jobs and livelihood” [4]. This is due to the fact that stigma, discrimination, and prejudice toward those who have mental illnesses are still major issues in today’s global society.
Often, experiencing external stigmatization can lead to greater self-stigma for individuals, which was linked to worse recovery from mental illness in scientific studies [4].

The growing treatment gap
The COVID-19 pandemic has sparked a global mental health crisis, causing millions of people to experience short- and long-term stress and jeopardizing their mental health. During COVID-19, the gap in treatment for mental health disorders has expanded significantly, while mental health services have been severely disrupted at the same time [1]. Resources in mental health services are thus limited and often not sufficient to meet the treatment needs for poor mental health [5].

What needs to change?
Mental disorders are more common than one might think, and prejudices surrounding poor mental health unfortunately only further increase the burden of the diseases on people suffering from them. It is therefore important to raise awareness about mental health problems, destigmatize mental illness, and help to ensure that individuals struggling with their mental health are not facing discrimination.
Given the high economic costs of mental disorders, it is also important to continuously work on improving the treatment support provided. Especially with lacking resources in mental health services and a growing treatment gap, this includes seeking new ways to help individuals suffering from mental health conditions.

How digital solutions for mental health can help
The use of digital platforms for remote patient monitoring and health assessment, as well as real-time patient analytics, could enable personalised treatment and improved quality of care [6]. Digital solutions for mental health could therefore offer the potential to empower and engage individuals with mental disorders to better manage their mental health, facilitating treatment for clinical professionals and empowering family caregivers to help drive down economic costs and increase productivity.
At Monsenso, we have worked with a variety of mental health disorders in both research and clinical settings. Our digital mental health solution has helped many individuals struggling with their mental health to better understand their conditions and live a more independent life, as well as helped clinicians to better support their patients. We are proud to support the World Mental Health Day and will continue to spread knowledge about mental health conditions and offer our support to individuals affected and clinicians providing treatment for mental illness.

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About Monsenso
Monsenso is an innovative technology company offering a digital health solution used for decentralised trials, remote patient monitoring and treatment support. Our mission is to contribute to improved health for more people at lower costs by supporting treatment digitally and leveraging patient-reported outcomes data. Our solution helps optimise the treatment and gives a detailed overview of an individual’s health through the collection of outcome, adherence, and behavioural data. It connects individuals, carers, and health care providers to enable personalised treatment, remote care, and early intervention. We collaborate with health and social care, pharmaceuticals, and leading researcher worldwide in our endeavours to deliver solutions that fit into the life of patients and health care professionals. To learn more visit  www.monsenso.com.

References:
[1] World Health Organization (n.d.). World Mental Health Day 2022.
https://www.who.int/campaigns/world-mental-health-day/2022

[2] World Health Organization (2022). Mental disorders.
https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/mental-disorders

[3] Trautmann, S., Rehm, J. & Wittchen, H. (2016).  The economic costs of mental disorders. EMBO reports 17(9).
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5007565/

[4] American Psychiatric Association (n.d.). Stigma, Prejudice and Discrimination Against People with Mental Illness.
https://www.psychiatry.org/patients-families/stigma-and-discrimination#:~:text=Public%20stigma%20involves%20the%20negative,have%20about%20their%20own%20condition.

[5] Saraceno, B. (2004). Mental health: scarce resources need new paradigms. World Psychiatry 3(1): 3–5.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1414651/

[6] Elsevier Health (2022). Clinician of the Future Report 2022.
https://www.elsevier.com/connect/clinician-of-the-future

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Mental health in an unequal world. World Mental Health Day 2021

Mental health in an unequal world. World Mental Health Day 2021

Oct 9, 2021

Mental illness, why bother if all goes well? Because the day it hits you or your loved ones, you may be faced with the harsh reality of “Mental Health in an unequal world”. Close to 1 billion people globally are living with a mental disorder. Yet, countries spend on avg. 2% of their national health budgets on mental health leaving a disproportionate gap between demand for mental health services and supply. Each year, October 10th marks the “World Mental Health Day”. This year the theme is “Mental Health in an Unequal World”. 

Originally chosen by the World Federation for Mental Health, the theme Mental Health in an Unequal World” refers to the inequality in access to health services in low- and middle-income countries, where between 75% and 95% of patients with mental disorders have no access to mental health services at all. Despite the universal nature and the magnitude of mental illness, the gap between demand for mental health services and supply remains substantial.

The global pandemic along with the climate crisis and social disarrangement lead the world to a difficult place. To date, the pandemic is impacting people of all ages and backgrounds: Illness, economic impact, job insecurity, and most importantly, physical distancing leading to social isolation and millions of people facing mental health issues.

  • Close to one billion people have a mental disorder and anyone can be affected.
  • Depression is a leading cause of disability worldwide and a major contributor to the global burden of disease. Globally, an estimated 5% of adults suffer from depression.
  • Globally, one in seven 10-19-year-olds suffers from a mental disorder. Half of all such disorders begin by the age of 14, but most go undiagnosed and untreated.
  • People with severe mental disorders like schizophrenia typically die 10-20 years earlier than the general population.
  • One in 100 deaths is by suicide. It is the fourth leading cause of death among young people aged 15-29.
  • The COVID -19 pandemic has had a significant impact on people’s mental health.

The World Federation for Mental Health also addresses the disparity between mental health investment and overall health. On average, countries spend only 2% of their national health budgets on mental health. This has changed little in recent years. Despite the scale of mental illness, the gap between demand for mental health services and supply remains substantial. Unaddressed mental health issues are now a leading global cause of disability and suffering. Yet only 10% receive “adequate” treatment – 75% receive no treatment at all.

The limited global availability of effective mental health treatments and a lack of objective measures of response to treatment, are some of the barriers in advancing patient outcomes. To reduce burden, it is critical to diagnose and monitor mood disorders using widely accessible, less costly, and scalable methods, which can enable a higher degree of specificity in mental health diagnoses and timely detection of clinical deterioration.

Building on the widespread adoption of smartphones, mobile health (mhealth) has gained significant interest as a means for capturing continuous, objectively observable and measurable data of patients’ behaviour and mental state. The data collected on smartphones and sensors represent a new approach aimed at measuring human behaviour and mental health, and thus an opportunity of detecting, assessing, and monitoring psychiatric disorders in a less costly and less burdensome way for the clinician.

The data collected on the smartphone are also referred to as digital biomarkers. These can be collected both passively through inbuilt sensors on the smartphone (physical activity and geolocation, social activity, text messages usage, phone usage, voice and speech pattern or wearables (sleep and activity), and actively via user engagement through self-monitored data/self-assessment data (mood, sleep, stress, medicine adherence).

By collecting this data between physician visits, clinicians can see fluctuations in patients’ mental states, providing a more holistic representation of the patient’s functioning over time. The data hereby offer the opportunity for clinicians to predict relevant outcomes in mood disorders and can thus serve as a tool of triage enabling to provide timely and preventative support to the individuals in critical need.

This approach, also known as digital-enabled psychiatry, has gained considerable interest and been extensively researched over the past decade to offer more people access to high-quality health and social care.

To learn more, visit our Research section here or watch a video on the opportunity of digital-enabled psychiatry from the Week of Health and Innovation conference 2021 in Denmark.

References:

https://wfmh.global/2021-world-mental-health-global-awareness-campaign-world-mental-health-day-theme/

https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/9789240031029

https://www.who.int/campaigns/world-mental-health-day/2021

https://www.who.int/key-messages

[1] https://www.who.int/gho/publications/world_health_statistics/EN_WHS2012_Full.pdf

[2] The size and burden of mental disorders and other disorders of the brain in Europe 2010. Eur Neuropsychopharmacol. 2011

[3] OECD – 2015

[4] Economist Intelligence Unit – 2015

Mental health in an unequal world. World Mental Health Day 2021

Mental health in an unequal world. World Mental Health Day 2021

Oct 8, 2021

Mental illness, why bother if all goes well? Because the day it hits you or your loved ones, you may be faced with the harsh reality of “Mental Health in an unequal world”. Close to 1 billion people globally are living with a mental disorder. Yet, countries spend on avg. 2% of their national health budgets on mental health leaving a disproportionate gap between demand for mental health services and supply. Each year, October 10th marks Worlds Mental Health Day. This year the theme is “Mental Health in an Unequal World”. 

Originally chosen by the World Federation for Mental Health, the theme Mental Health in an Unequal World” refers to the inequality in access to health services in low- and middle-income countries, where between 75% and 95% of patients with mental disorders have no access to mental health services at all. Despite the universal nature and the magnitude of mental illness, the gap between demand for mental health services and supply remains substantial.

The global pandemic along with the climate crisis and social disarrangement lead the world to a difficult place. To date, the pandemic is impacting people of all ages and backgrounds: Illness, economic impact, job insecurity, and most importantly, physical distancing leading to social isolation and millions of people facing mental health issues.

  • Close to one billion people have a mental disorder and anyone can be affected.
  • Depression is a leading cause of disability worldwide and a major contributor to the global burden of disease. Globally, an estimated 5% of adults suffer from depression.
  • Globally, one in seven 10-19-year-olds suffers from a mental disorder. Half of all such disorders begin by the age of 14, but most go undiagnosed and untreated.
  • People with severe mental disorders like schizophrenia typically die 10-20 years earlier than the general population.
  • One in 100 deaths is by suicide. It is the fourth leading cause of death among young people aged 15-29.
  • The COVID -19 pandemic has had a significant impact on people’s mental health.

The World Federation for Mental Health also addresses the disparity between mental health investment and overall health. On average, countries spend only 2% of their national health budgets on mental health. This has changed little in recent years. Despite the scale of mental illness, the gap between demand for mental health services and supply remains substantial. People with mental illness do not receive the health services they are entitled to and deserve, causing them to experience stigma and discrimination.
WFMH states, “Stigma and discrimination do not only affect people’s physical and mental health, stigma also affects their educational opportunities, current and future earning and job prospects, and also affects their families and loved ones. This inequality needs to be addressed because it should not be allowed to continue.”

The vision portrayed by WHO is a world where mental health is valued, promoted and protected. Where people affected by any of these disorders are able to exercise all their human rights and have access to high-quality health and social care.

The World Mental Health Day provides an opportunity for people to act together and highlight how inequality can be addressed to ensure that people can enjoy good mental health.

References:

https://wfmh.global/2021-world-mental-health-global-awareness-campaign-world-mental-health-day-theme/

https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/9789240031029

https://www.who.int/campaigns/world-mental-health-day/2021

https://www.who.int/key-messages