Chatbot Remote Monitoring System in Patients with Schizophrenia: A Pilot Study of User Experience

Remote monitoring of remission status in patients with schizophrenia spectrum disorders (SSDs) is a promising approach for the early detection of mental disorder relapses. However, there are currently no validated digital tools available for this purpose in Russia. An important prerequisite for the development of such tools is assessing user experience, as it largely determines patient adherence to self-monitoring.

To evaluate the user experience associated with chatbot-based remote monitoring of remission in patients with schizophrenia spectrum disorders.

Over a 9-day period, patients completed a digital diary using a chatbot (a total of five morning and five evening sessions). To reduce respondent burden, the diary questions were divided into two blocks. The morning session included a questionnaire for the self-assessment of psychotic and affective symptoms, including 12 items from the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS), 2 items from the Calgary Depression Scale for Schizophrenia (CDSS), the Spiegel Sleep Questionnaire (SSQ), and the 4-item Morisky-Green-Levine Medication Adherence Questionnaire (MGL-4). The evening session included the short-form of the Quality of Life Enjoyment and Satisfaction Questionnaire (Q-LES-Q-SF) and the patient version of the UKU Side Effect Rating Scale (UKU-SERS-Pat). After the self-monitoring period had been completed, participants evaluated their experience interacting with the technology using a 21-item questionnaire.

The study included 15 patients with SSDs. Most participants (80%) completed more than half of the diary sessions. Participants reported high satisfaction with the chatbot functionality and good acceptability of the technology overall. Among the limitations of the remote monitoring system, participants mentioned the large number of questions and the lack of personalized notifications.

Patients with SSDs responded positively to the use of a chatbot for remote monitoring of remission. Further improvements should include streamlined patient interactions and personalized features such as medication reminders and visual symptom tracking.