Originally Adapted Mobile Application Used for Neuropsychiatric Patients

Abstract

Abstract The potential use of modern mobile devices for medical purposes is huge. Digital mental health tools have mostly tended to use psycho-educational strategies based on treatment orientations developed and validated outside digital health. The aim of this study was to test the availability of our own original app named “Neuro-game” for evaluation of reaction time in different neuropsychiatric patients. Reaction time is strongly related to the executive brain functions. The examined sample comprised of 135 neuropsychiatric patients (with epilepsy, depression, general anxiety, psychosis and ADHD) compared with matched 50 healthy persons. We showed that the average reaction time in neuropsychiatric patients compared with healthy people is not notably different. However, we found significant differences in total hits, total misses and total tries in the performances of ill persons. The crucial differences in obtained scores are confirmed for age and gender issues. The most important differences are found in the number of hits, misses and tries in the group of depressed, followed by psychotic and ADHD patients, while anxious ones showed pretty normal parameters. All tested parameters are remarkably different for the epileptic group vs. healthy people. The T-test for epileptic vs. healthy people showed noteworthy differences for total tries, total misses, and total hits, but the average time reaction did not differ significantly. In comparison with other psychometric assessments, this approach by using mobile phones seemed more practical, available anywhere (not only in medical settings), less time consuming and quite interesting for all ages.