A Mobile App to Support Mood, Daily Routines and Medication Adherence in Adults With Severe Mental Illness

Severe mental illness is associated with difficulties in emotional regulation, social functioning and medication adherence, and social dysfunction is a strong predictor of relapse. Conventional follow-up relies on episodic clinic visits and retrospective self-report, which may miss early changes in mood, sleep and adherence. Mobile health tools allow continuous monitoring, personalised feedback and early intervention in the patient's daily setting, but few integrate mood monitoring, social rhythm regulation, medication adherence, family involvement and relapse prevention in one culturally adapted platform. Design: two-arm, parallel-group randomized controlled trial with pretest and post-test measurement. Randomization: 60 participants are allocated 1:1 (30 per group) using a computer-generated sequence, with allocation concealed until baseline data collection is complete. Intervention: MoodSync is a dual application (patient app and family-caregiver app) providing daily mood monitoring, sleep and activity tracking through a wearable device (30 devices provided to the intervention group), medication-adherence reminders, social rhythm regulation and early warning-sign reporting. The app is a supportive self-management tool and does not replace clinical care or diagnosis. A predefined clinical safety protocol guides the response to high-risk alerts or signs of deterioration, including timely referral to the responsible healthcare provider. Analysis: between-group differences in post-test outcomes are tested with analysis of covariance adjusted for baseline scores, or mixed-effects models, with effect sizes. App-use data, adherence patterns, system alerts and wearable indicators are analysed in aggregate.