Development of an Auxiliary Platform (Mentali) for the Primary Screening of Anxiety and Depression in Young Adults

Abstract

The current COVID-19 pandemic has completely changed people’s daily routines. This has had a big impact on mental health. In Mexico, medical school authorities are interested in understanding the mental health status of the student population to be able to provide support to students who may need help from a mental health specialist. The aim of this study was to develop a platform comprised of a mobile and web application called Mentali, to be used as an auxiliary tool for the detection of conditions such as anxiety and depression, as well as variations in mood, by analysis of the results of validated inventories. Following the Scrum software development methodology, Python, Dart and PHP programming languages were used for development of the application. This platform was used prospectively with 155 first year students taking part in the human medicine program. After 22 weeks, Mentali enabled the identification of 40 users with positive primary screening for anxiety and/or depression (45% for anxiety, 32.5% for both anxiety and depression, and 22.5% for altered mood). These students were contacted and referred to a psychologist; however, only 26 (65%) accepted psychological support. For all of these students a mental health disorder was confirmed. The results support the use of Mentali for the primary screening of anxiety and depression in young adults, including medical students.