mHealth in psychiatry: A pathway to person-centered care

Influenced by the field of epidemiology and the early ecological psychologists, my research focused on the role of person-environment interactions in the development and maintenance of psychopathology - a field I would name Contextual Psychiatry. To capture the interaction between the person and the environment, I was one of the early adopters of the Experience Sampling Method (ESM) in mental health research. Using ESM, we demonstrated that there is an affective pathway to psychosis, characterized by increased stress-reactivity. Also altered social interactions have been identified as an important factor in the development of psychopathology. With digital technology quickly evolving, the impact of my work has now been extended to the development and implementation of mHealth and digital Health approaches in mental health, including the clinical application of ESM in routine mental health care as well as the development of Ecological Momentary Interventions. Moving forward, if we want to deliver treatment at moments when it is most needed and adapted to the needs of the individual, we need to advance our understanding of the real-time dynamics of the psychological and physiological processes of psychopathology - thus establishing a more personalised mental health care.