Accepted for/Published in: JMIR Formative Research
Date Submitted: May 11, 2022
Date Accepted: Aug 9, 2022
Date Submitted to PubMed: Aug 10, 2022
Developing an online positive psychology application for patients with bipolar disorder: 'How the expectations of consumers and professionals turned into an intervention.'
ABSTRACT
Background:
Patients with Bipolar Disorder (BD) report a lower quality of life and lower levels of well-being than the general population, and have unmet needs closely linked to positive psychology domains. Although a growing number of studies evaluated the impact of positive psychology interventions (PPIs) on patients with severe mental illness in general, only few addressed the application of positive psychology in BD.
Objective:
The current study aimed to gain insight into the opinion of patients with BD and health care professionals about (online) PPIs for BD and to develop and pilot-test an app containing PPIs specifically designed for patients with BD.
Methods:
The study was conducted in accordance with the Center for eHealth and Disease Management (CeHRes) roadmap principles and incorporated co-creation and designing for implementation. Data was collected using focus group meetings (FGMs), questionnaires, rapid prototyping (RPT), and online feedback on a prototype from the participants. Three FGMs were held with eight BD patients and five professionals. The collected data was used to develop a smartphone app containing short PPIs. The content was based on PPIs for which a solid base of evidence is available. Finally, a Pilot Test (PT) was used to test the app.
Results:
FGMs revealed that positive psychology interventions as part of the current BD treatment could potentially meet the following needs: offering hope, increasing self-esteem, expressing feelings, acceptance, and preventing social isolation. Some patients expressed concern that PPIs may provoke a (hypo)manic episode by increasing positive affect. The pilot test of the app showed that the PPIs are moderate to highly valued by the participants. There were no adverse effects such as an increase of (hypo)manic symptoms.
Conclusions:
There is consensus among consumers and professionals about the potential benefits of positive psychology interventions to address unmet needs of BD patients. Our findings also suggest that a self-help app is a promising way to implement positive psychology interventions in BD. Clinical Trial: NA
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