Background: Non-adherence to pharmaceutical antidepressant treatment is common among patients suffering from depression. This can lead to a deterioration of depressive symptoms with a potential need for hospitalization and increased healthcare costs as an effect. Previous studies have shown that automatic self-monitoring systems through digital applications can be effective in increasing adherence to treatment. 

Aim: Explore patients’ experiences of using a smartphone app on a daily basis for the first four weeks after being prescribed an antidepressant.

Method: A qualitative descriptive study. Ten patients were recruited from an outpatient psychiatric clinic in Sweden. In connection to inclusion a nurse assisted with the installation of a digital application called Seno. Nine patients, seven females and two men ranging between 18–40 years, completed the study. Individual semi-structured interviews were conducted after using the app for four to six weeks. Recorded data was transcribed and analysed using qualitative content analysis.

Results: The participants experienced that a digital application could be valuable as an augmentation to antidepressant treatment, but with room for improvement. Adherence was positively affected by a daily reminder and the application’s ease-of-use, but was negatively affected by technical issues, cognitive impairments and a lack of flexibility to tailor the content according to individual needs. The positive experience of visually presented data in graphs was a key finding and was found beneficial for self-awareness as well as for the patient-physician relationship, and engagement to continue using the application. Participants expressed no concerns regarding the safety of their health data when using the application.

Conclusion: A digital solution for self-monitoring of depressive symptoms and adherence to medication can be found useful and is tolerated by patients when being prescribed, or making a change, in pharmaceutical antidepressant treatment. Several factors can impact the usability of, and engagement in, the digital application and need to be considered when designing this kind of solution. This indicates that there is a need for user involvement early on in the design process.