A UJI thesis is a pioneer in the use of geospatial technologies for treating mental disorders



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## A UJI thesis is a pioneer in the use of geospatial technologies for treating mental disorders

15/01/2020 |
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* [![ tesis-geotec TesiIgnacioMirallesweb](/com/investigacio/arxiu/noticies/2020/1/tesis-geotec/TesiIgnacioMirallesweb.jpg)](#)

Ignacio Miralles Tena, doctoral student of the Geotec research group at the Universitat Jaume I, defended his doctoral thesis in December under the title "Analysis and development of a platform for generating context-aware apps for mental health", financed since 2015 by a FPU grant from the Spanish Ministry of Education, Culture and Sport.

In the context of this doctoral thesis, which obtained the qualification of cum laude, Miralles has designed, developed and tested a platform that allows therapists to build personalised interventions for each type of disorder and patient, promoting certain actions appropriate for their treatment, remembering the contents worked on in therapy sessions and motivating beneficial behaviours for their improvement.

Mental disorders are a complex problem whose most effective solution so far is evidence-based treatment. Technology has been one of the tools with which clinicians have been trying to fight this problem for several years. However, there are studies that show that there is an under-utilization of its potential in this field. The study of the spatial context of people, for example, can give specific support to psychological treatments, providing the therapist and the patient with additional tools to combat these disorders. Until now, this context-mental health relationship has not been addressed with sufficient attention.

The platform, called SyMptOMS, uses mobile and geospatial technologies, which have been underused in the field of mental health until now, to determine the patient's location, thus avoiding exposure to negative or risky situations. For example, it prevents from approaching a gambling center, in the case of patients with gambling disorders; or it encourages to move around a recommended space, for a patient with agoraphobia.

As part of the systematic review [1] with which this doctoral thesis begins, more than 7,000 articles from the international scientific literature were analyded, concluding that, up to the moment, interventions supported by mobile technologies are scarce, when these have numerous sensors that could effectively improve these treatments. In fact, the results obtained to date [2] and presented by Miralles point to the preliminary effectiveness of the SyMptOMS platform in these treatments, thus starting a promising line of research, which has already been positively evaluated by the Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities, by providing it with a project called "Retos" (RTI2018-099939-B-I00), which is currently underway.

The directors of the thesis, Carlos Granell and Joaquin Huerta, both researchers at Geotec, highlighted "the 'icebreaker' effect of this thesis that opens new horizons not only to the field of psychology, but also to the field of computer science, since by properly parameterising the SyMptOMS Platform and taking special care with the sensitivity of the data we are dealing with, there are numerous disorders to which these technologies can be applied".

The defense of this thesis, far from closing this line of research, serves as a basis for two other doctoral theses already in progress, and opens up a range of opportunities for collaboration between Geotec and Labpsitec.

[1] Miralles, I., Granell, C., Díaz, L., Van Woensel, W., Bretón-López, J., Mira, A., Castilla, D. and Casteleyn, S. Smartphone apps for the treatment of mental disorders: a systematic review. JMIR Preprints. 03/06/2019:14897

[2] Miralles, I., Granell, C., García-Palacios, A., Castilla, D., González-Pérez, A., Casteleyn, S., & Bretón-López, J. (2019). Enhancing In Vivo Exposure in the Treatment of Panic Disorder and Agoraphobia Using Location-Based Technologies: A Case Study. Clinical Case Studies, 1534650119892900.

[3] Miralles, I. and Granell, C. (2019). Considerations for Designing Context-Aware Mobile Apps for Mental Health Interventions. International journal of environmental research and public health, 16(7), 1197

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