IoT-Based Services and Applications for Mental Health in the Literature

Internet of Things (IoT) has emerged as a new paradigm today, connecting a variety of physical and virtual elements integrated with electronic components, sensors, actuators and software to collect and exchange data. IoT is gaining increasing attention as a priority research topic in the Health sector in general and in specific areas such as Mental Health. The main objective of this paper is to show a review of the existing research works in the literature, referring to the main IoT services and applications in Mental Health diseases. The scientific databases used to carry out the review are Google Scholar, IEEE Xplore, PubMed, Science Direct, and Web of Science, taking into account as date of publication the last 10 years, from 2008 to the present. Several search criteria were established such as “IoT OR Internet of Things AND (Application OR Service) AND Mental Health” selecting the most interesting articles. A total of 51 articles were found on IoT-based services and applications in Mental Health, of which 14 have been identified as relevant works in mental health. Many of the publications (more than 60%) found show the applications developed for monitoring patients with mental disorders through sensors and networked devices. The inclusion of the new IoT technology in Health brings many benefits in terms of monitoring, welfare interventions and providing alert and information services. In pathologies such as Mental Health is a vital factor to improve the patient life quality and effectiveness of the medical service.