Using GPS Tracking to Understand Mental Illnesses

24 Mar 2015

GPS technology paves the way toward more knowledge of severe mental illnesses, such as depression and schizophrenia.

For years, researchers and scientists have tried to discover more about mental illnesses, particularly severe mental illness. Now, with the help of GPS tracking and a new study, they are able to do so.

Researchers at Temple University are utilizing GPS technology to enlighten them with information they have never had before about people with disorders like schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and severe depression. They are tracking the individual’s community participation, which so far has left a big gap in research about these types of illnesses.

“For the most part, research focuses on their deficits, or on their illnesses. I also think there’s somewhat of a bias. I suspect we don’t think people have lives outside of the mental health system,” said Mark Salzer, who works for the Rehabilitation Sciences at Temple University’s College of Public Health:

Salzer also adds that there isn’t much information about community participation, socialization, and mobility of people who are struggling with severe mental illness.

In the past, the only real data they had to go on about community participation were surveys. They could ask the individual if they went to school, church, or work, but that was the extent of it. This was also subjective, since the individual would have needed to remember everything they did and report it back for the survey.

Now, the study is using advanced technology. Each of the people participating in the study is given a smartphone for two weeks. The phone includes a GPS tracking device inside that monitors all of the individual’s movements. They are asked to keep the phone on their person everywhere they go in order to obtain the most accurate results. Individuals participating also need to log their activities, so that researchers can fill in any blanks and get more comprehensive results.

This research project will last a total of three years and is possible thanks to a $600,000 grant provided by the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research.

There are three main areas that Salzer and the rest of the research team want to get during the study. The first is learning basic information about what people do and where they go on an average day when they have a serious mental illness. The team can follow them around with the GPS smartphone and find out what they are doing.

The next thing they want to learn the actual methodology of community interaction with people who have mental illnesses. This can be used to judge how well certain treatments are working for mental illness, by looking at it from another perspective.

Lastly, they hope to look at what the environment around them has to do with their choice in activities throughout the day.


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