Only 2/3 of people actually use the apps they activate to manage depression and anxiety

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2025-11-20 03:00

Australia; VIC

Photo by Rami Al-zayat on Unsplash

Trials of apps for depression show that while we might be ready to download and activate the app, we are not so good at sticking with it. Australian-led research has looked across multiple trials of apps for depression and anxiety and found that while the rate of app uptake was 92.4% overall, only around 61.8% of people actually adhered to using the app. They also found that around 28.4% of people failed to complete the apps' final outcome assessments. The authors say that trials which offered reminders, human contact, and no gamification features had lower dropout rates.

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Journal/
conference: JAMA Psychiatry

Research:Paper

Organisation/s: Deakin University

Funder: Dr Torous reported serving on a scientific advisory board for Boehringer Ingelheim outside the submitted work. No other disclosures were reported.

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