Apple's New Platform Is a Game Changer for Depression Treatment

Finding the right treatment for anxiety and depression is exhausting—and it can leave you feeling defeated. Maybe you try talk therapy or an SSRI (or both), and then you continue to adjust and try new remedies until you find your literal happy medium, a process that takes most people at least six months. Part of the reason it takes so long is we’re not great at tracking whether the medication is actually helping. (When you can’t remember what you had for lunch yesterday, recalling how a drug made you feel over the last few weeks is no easy task.)

But that’s all about to change with CareKit, a game-changing software platform from Apple that will be released on iOS devices in April. CareKit includes four modules:

• Care Card: Monitors medication or progress on treatment, like physical therapy.
• Symptom and Measurement Tracker: Records physical signs, such as pain, fatigue, or infection, that suggest treatment should be changed.
• Insight Dashboard: Analyzes data into graphs.
• Connect: Shares medical data with doctors and family.

The platform will function much like Apple’s HealthKit, which is designed for health and fitness apps. Developers are already stepping up to the plate to take advantage of the new framework with apps to track depression, diabetes, and post-surgical care. Sharing such personal data about yourself worries many, but Apple is quick to point out that you are in control here, deciding who gets to see what information.

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