Development and implementation of E-health interventions to improve self-management and well-Being in patients with bipolar disorder (WELLBE-BD)

Bipolar disorder (BD) is a chronic condition with a cyclical and unpredictable course. A combination of pharmacological interventions and self-management strategies are crucial to effectively manage the disorder. Although regular monitoring of mood symptoms is an important component of self-management, many patients fail to consistently track their moods.

Despite the broad consensus on effective treatments for BD, patients have unmet healthcare needs essential to their personal recovery, such as finding meaning in life, developing self-confidence, learning to express their feelings and coping with unexpected situations. These needs are closely related to the dimensions of positive psychology (PP), which include goal orientation, personal growth, autonomy, environmental control, self-acceptance and positive relationships. PP is a relatively new field in psychology that focuses on improving positive feelings, behaviours and thoughts. By increasing resilience and reducing stress, PP interventions may possibly help prevent mood episode relapses and improve patient compliance with selfmanagement strategies, such as mood monitoring.

Although the adoption of e-health is on the rise, it has not yet become a widespread practice in all mental health services. As the demand for online healthcare services increases, e-health offers a unique opportunity to improve and facilitate selfmanagement of the disease and to offer interventions to increase well-being in a lowthreshold and personalised manner.

This dissertation aims to enhance well-being and address some of the unmet needs of patients with BD by exploring ways to improve self-management, particularly mood monitoring compliance. To achieve this goal, we collaborated with BD patients and professionals to create an app rooted in PP before evaluating its acceptability and effectiveness. Specifically, we aimed to develop well-being and mood monitoring interventions together in one mobile application (m-health).