Using ecological momentary assessment for patients with psychosis posthospitalization: Opportunities for mobilizing measurement-based care.

OBJECTIVE

Ecological momentary assessment (EMA) via mobile devices offers a promising approach for collecting real-time data from psychiatric patients, potentially as an augment to traditional measurement-based care strategies. This study examined whether EMA had added value in collecting clinically important data from recently hospitalized adults with psychosis, relative to traditional assessments.

METHOD

In a sample of 24 adults with psychosis, EMA data regarding psychotic symptoms, affect, alcohol and drug use, functioning, quality of life, and social support were collected starting immediately posthospital discharge and extending for up to one month during their transition to outpatient care. EMA data were compared with traditional retrospective assessments of the same constructs, administered at a 1-month follow-up assessment.

RESULTS

Data from EMA and traditional retrospective assessments were correlated with each other in most cases. However, in some cases, participants were more likely to report drug use, medication nonadherence, and psychotic symptoms via EMA compared with traditional retrospective assessments.

CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE

Results suggest that the additional information obtained via frequent in-the-moment self-reports collected using smartphones can provide an expanded picture of individuals' symptomatic and functional experiences. Thus, monitoring patients' progress posthospitalization could be improved through the use of EMA. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).