A multi-sensor monitoring system for objective mental health management in resource constrained environments

Neuropsychiatric conditions account for one third of years lost to disability among adults worldwide and in the United Kingdom account for almost half of all health issues for people under the age of 65. At the same time, mental health budgets (especially in low- and middle-income countries) are increasingly stretched denying care to those that need it. The WHO predicts that unipolar depressive disorders will become the leading cause of disabilities worldwide by 2030. This paper describes a smartphone-based system that allows remote realtime monitoring of psychiatric patient symptoms, behaviour and physiology to enable allocation of psychiatric resources most efficiently. We present preliminary results from an ongoing study of over 100 participants showing qualitative differences between healthy controls and pathological subjects.