“This app said I had severe depression, and now I don’t know what to do”: the unintentional harms of mental health applications

Abstract

A growing market for mental health applications and increasing evidence for the efficacy of these applications have made apps a popular mode of mental healthcare delivery. However, given the gravity of mental illnesses, the potential harms of using these applications must be continually investigated. In this study, we conducted a thematic analysis using user-comments left on depression self-management applications. We analyzed 6,253 reviews from thirty-six, systematically selected apps from the Google Play and Apple App stores. We identified four themes regarding the potential, unintentional harms caused by these applications. This study uniquely contributes to the literature by examining the reported harms to users caused by depression self-management apps and contextualizing them in an ethical framework. We provide recommendations to developers for creating ethical depression self-management apps and resources for practitioners and consumers to aid in screening apps.