Preliminary Outcomes of an Ecological Momentary Intervention for Social Functioning in Schizophrenia: Pre-Post Study of the Motivation and Skills Support App

BACKGROUND: People with schizophrenia and other serious mental illnesses often lack access to evidence-based interventions, particularly interventions that target meaningful recovery outcomes such as social functioning and quality of life. Mobile technologies, including smartphone apps, have the potential to provide scalable support that places elements of evidence-based interventions at the palm of patients’ hands. OBJECTIVE: We aim to develop a smartphone app—called Motivation and Skills Support—to provide targeted social goal support (eg, making new friends and improving existing relationships) for people with schizophrenia enrolled in a stand-alone open trial. METHODS: In this paper, we presented preliminary outcomes of 31 participants who used the Motivation and Skills Support app for 8 weeks, including social functioning pre- to postintervention, and momentary reports of treatment targets (eg, social motivation and appraisals) during the intervention. RESULTS: The findings suggest that the intervention improved self-reported social functioning from baseline to treatment termination, particularly in female participants. Gains were not maintained at the 3-month follow-up. Furthermore, increased social functioning was predicted by momentary reports of social appraisals, including perceived social competence and the extent to which social interactions were worth the effort. CONCLUSIONS: The implications of these findings and future directions for addressing social functioning in schizophrenia using mobile technology have been discussed. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT03404219; https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT03404219