Towards personalised ambient monitoring of mental health via mobile technologies.

Managing bipolar disorder is an important health issue that can strongly affect the patient's quality of life during occurrences of depressive or manic episodes and is therefore a growing burden to healthcare systems. A widely practised method of monitoring the course of the disorder is by mood and general mental health questionnaires, which are nowadays often implemented on mobile electronic devices.Detecting changes to daily routine and behaviour is of crucial importance as they can be symptomatic of an ongoing episode, or in the case of an external cause, may trigger such an episode.Current mobile phones and geospatial technology provide a means of monitoring aspects of daily routine and lifestyle which may be valuable in facilitating self-management of the condition.This manuscript introduces a methodology for analysing data obtained from a simple wearable system based on a mid-range mobile phone, along with trial results from a control group of three participants with no history of Bipolar Disorder. It is suggested that such an approach offers an unobtrusive, acceptable and low cost means of monitoring bipolar disorder patients that could significantly improve their care.