Modeling Mood Course to Detect Markers of Effective Adaptive Interventions

Bipolar disorder is a chronic illness of profound shifts in mood ranging from mania to
depression. Bipolar disorder is successfully treated by combining medication with
psychosocial therapy, but care can prove inadequate in practice. With gaps in coverage and
medication, along with imprecise guidelines on when, where, and how to intervene, promising
psychosocial therapies require adaptive strategies to better address the specific needs of
individuals in a timely manner. To accomplish this, however, requires evidence-based
practices for adapting a psychosocial therapy. The long-term goal of this study is to address
this knowledge gap, by establishing a mobile health platform for translating a psychosocial
therapy in bipolar disorder into an effective adaptive intervention.

An important first step and the specific goal of this study is to answer the question of how
to engage individuals with bipolar disorder in long-term monitoring of their daily patterns
of mood, stress, sleep, circadian rhythm, and medical adherence. To answer this question,
individuals with bipolar disorder will interact with a smart-phone application and activity
tracker over six weeks. Individuals will record their symptoms twice-daily with the
smart-phone application while activity, sleep, and heart rate are recorded with their
activity tracker. In addition, individuals will be interviewed on a weekly basis. The study
focuses on testing three engagement strategies: using activity trackers rather than
self-reports; reviewing recorded symptoms with another person on a weekly basis; and
synthesizing a person's data into charts and graphs.

Inclusion Criteria:

- Individuals diagnosed with bipolar disorder

- Individuals with a smart-phone

Exclusion Criteria: