Alberto Ortiz Lobo
Doctor of Medicine and Psychiatrist at the Carlos III Day Hospital - La Paz University Hospital (Madrid)
Beyond the methodological limitations of a meta-analysis carried out with the inclusion of studies with very small samples, short evolutions, heterogeneous in clinical and care criteria (and curiously homogeneous in the age of the population studied, young adults), and the placebo effect of being monitored, the most relevant aspect is the focus of the research.
The use of mobile applications to intervene in depression is part of the limited biomedical discourse that interprets mental suffering exclusively as symptoms of a disease to be treated. The use of these tools to monitor and influence people's bodies and minds is not a neutral technical intervention, but rather deepens the individualistic ideology of psychological distress and neglects the social and relational determinants that condition our emotional states.
The translation of behaviours and bodily functions into data implies the ability to control them individually, regardless of the context, and makes guilty victims out of those subjects who suffer from painful social and family situations and are unable to feel well.
The search for an individual technological solution based on mobile apps is a further step in the dehumanisation of the understanding of mental problems and their approach, and risks becoming the discriminatory treatment of those individuals or communities who cannot afford a relationship with a professional.