B·RIGHT: usability and satisfaction with a mobile app for self-managing emotional crises in patients with borderline personality disorder

Abstract

Objective: Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is a severe mental disorder characterized by emotional crises. To date, crisis interventions for BPD have been conducted via telephone calls and emergency units, which are associated with an extra amount of resources. The aim of this research was to test the usability and satisfaction with a psychotherapeutic mobile app for self-managing crises in BPD. Method: The B·RIGHT app was designed based on Artificial Intelligence psychotherapeutic algorithms. Usability and satisfaction with the app were assessed in 25 outpatients diagnosed with BPD (84% female, mean age = 35.80 years) using the System Usability Scale (SUS) and other questionnaires. Clinical features were assessed using the Borderline Symptom List, the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale and Beck’s Depression Inventory. Results: Patients with BPD considered the app user-friendly (mean total score = 4.03) and highly satisfactory (mean total score = 4.02), resulting in a positive user experience (mean total score = 4.09). Total usability was negatively associated with age ( r = −.44), positively associated with educational level ( rho = .47) and with overall emotion dysregulation ( r = .51), and negatively associated with depression severity ( r = −.47). Conclusions: The usability and satisfaction testing of the B·RIGHT app showed promising findings, which warrant further research in order to validate its effectiveness.

User perceptions of mobile digital apps for mental health: Acceptability and usability ‐ An integrative review

“…The 17 articles identified through the search described above span nine years, from 2011 to 2020 and predominantly came from Europe or Scandinavia (seven: (Bucci et al., 2018; Ebenfeld et al., 2020; Eisner, Drake, et al., 2019; Frias et al., 2020; Hidalgo‐Mazzei et al., 2016; Ly et al., 2015; Palmier‐Claus et al., 2013)), or the United States (six: (Boisseau et al., 2017; Burns et al., 2011; Hantsoo et al., 2018; Jonathan et al., 2019; Mistler et al., 2017; Schlosser et al., 2016)), with one article being a study across ten countries (Pham et al., 2016). Most studies were conducted in the community or in outpatient clinics, except for one study which was hospital‐based (Mistler et al., 2017).…”

“…Most studies were conducted in the community or in outpatient clinics, except for one study which was hospital‐based (Mistler et al., 2017). The most common mental health condition which participants experienced were: mood disorders (including depression and bipolar) (Burns et al., 2011; Caplan et al., 2018; Hantsoo et al., 2018; Hidalgo‐Mazzei et al., 2016; Jonathan et al., 2019; Ly et al., 2015; Mistler et al., 2017) and psychosis (including schizophrenia, non‐affective psychosis, schizoaffective disorder) (Bucci et al., 2018; Eisner, Drake, et al., 2019; Jonathan et al., 2019; Kidd et al., 2019; Mistler et al., 2017; Moore et al., 2020; Palmier‐Claus et al., 2013; Schlosser et al., 2016), with the remainder in other conditions such as borderline personality disorder (Frias et al., 2020), panic disorder (Ebenfeld et al., 2020), anxiety (Pham et al., 2016), and OCD (Boisseau et al., 2017).…”

Technology-Based Psychosocial Interventions for People with Borderline Personality Disorder: A Scoping Review of the Literature

“…interventions. There were five types of software (three beta versions and two full versions) with little clinical evidence (RDL: immature): B•RIGHT [20], Sense-IT [21], EMOTEO [22], DBT Coach [23,24], and mDiary app [25]. All of them should be used as unguided self-management interventions.…”

“…5 Emotion Regulation Scale. 6 RDL (scores): immature (0-3), emerging (4-8), promising (9-12), adequate (13)(14)(15)(16), and validated (17)(18)(19)(20). improvements in BPD symptoms at 1.5-month follow-up after using the same fMRI neurofeedback training [34].…”

“…Studies on feasibility, acceptance, and usability had several limitations. (1) Four studies only employed a user-centered approach instead of multiple user groups for usability and acceptance testing [20,22,24,29]. Specifically, provider (therapist) opinions should be always taken into consideration because they are responsible of implementing the new technology in the healthcare setting [25].…”