Digital Phenotyping for Stress, Anxiety, and Mild Depression: Systematic Literature Review.

Background: Unaddressed early-stage mental health issues, including stress, anxiety, and mild depression, can become a burden for individuals in the long term. Digital phenotyping involves capturing continuous behavioral data via digital smartphone devices to monitor human behavior and can potentially identify milder symptoms before they become serious.

Objective: This systematic literature review aimed to answer the following questions: (1) what is the evidence of the effectiveness of digital phenotyping using smartphones in identifying behavioral patterns related to stress, anxiety, and mild depression? and (2) in particular, which smartphone sensors are found to be effective, and what are the associated challenges?

Methods: We used the PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) process to identify 36 papers (reporting on 40 studies) to assess the key smartphone sensors related to stress, anxiety, and mild depression.