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A mobile mediation tool for improving interaction between depressed individuals and caregivers

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Abstract

Depression, a common mental disorder, significantly affects an individual’s ability to live a normal life. Excessive reassurance-seeking is a common interpersonal behavior characteristic of depression and often leads to negative interaction between caregivers and depressed individuals, who seek excessive assurance from the caregivers at inappropriate times, such as when caregivers are busy. Such negative interaction results in elevated feelings of burden for both caregivers and care receivers. However, maintaining a good relationship between depressed individuals and caregivers is crucial to overcoming difficult times during depression. Therefore, we propose a mobile care mediation system that enables depressed individuals and caregivers to share mood and availability information, thus improving communication in caregiving and care-receiving and reducing the caregiving burden.

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Notes

  1. The BDI-II is a 21-item, self-reported measure of the severity of depression symptoms. Items of various severities of depression symptoms are rated on a 4-point Likert scale, with total scores ranging from 0 to 63.

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Acknowledgments

The study reported in this paper was supported in part by Research Grant from the National Science Council of Taiwan (NSC 96-2413-H-002-012-MY3).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan

    Sheng-Hsiang Yu & Sue-Huei Chen

  2. Department of Computer Science and Information Engineering, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan

    Li-Shan Wang & Hao-Hua Chu

  3. Department of Psychiatry, National Taiwan University Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan

    Sue-Huei Chen

  4. School and Graduate Institute of Nursing, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan

    Cheryl Chai-Hui Chen

  5. Research Center for Information Technology Innovation, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan

    Chuang-Wen You

  6. Department of Electrical Engineering, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan

    Polly Huang

Authors
  1. Sheng-Hsiang Yu
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  2. Li-Shan Wang
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Correspondence to Hao-Hua Chu.

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Yu, SH., Wang, LS., Chu, HH. et al. A mobile mediation tool for improving interaction between depressed individuals and caregivers. Pers Ubiquit Comput 15, 695–706 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00779-010-0347-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00779-010-0347-z

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