Emmanuel Stip, MD is professor of psychiatry and Chair of the department since Summer 2019. Previously he was a professor at the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Montreal (UdeM). He has been practicing psychiatry in Montreal, Abitibi, Vancouver (UBC), and Caen (Normandy) and was a clinician-researcher at the Centre Hospitalier of the University of Montreal (CHUM) and at the Institute (IUSMM). He was also Chairman of the Department of Psychiatry from 2009 to 2017 at UdeM. His research interests evolve around neuropsychology and cognition, phenomenology, brain imaging, psychopharmacology, global mental health and history of psychiatry. He was the Chair holder of the UdeM Schizophrenia Research Eli Lilly Chair. He supervised more than 30 students in Master or PhD. He has published over 400 peer-reviewed journals, has a google scholar index of 59. He has also received over 5 million dollars in research grants (CIHR, FRQS) and numerous awards including: Distinguished Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association, The Cleghorn Award from the Canadian Psychiatric Association, Michael Smith Award for Schizophrenia, and the Heinz E. Lehmann Prize for Excellence from the Association des médecins psychiatres du Québec (AMPQ), Professor Emeritus 2021. He is associate editor of the Canadian journal of Psychiatry, and the former director of Santé Mentale au Quebec. Professor Emeritus.
Abstract
From Blackberry to Mindtales: Evolution of smartphone application in mental health and addiction
The field of mobile health applications is enormously increasing as a growing number of users search for easily accessible and effective interventions for mental health problems. There are more than thousand smart phone applications worldwide. Some of them are specific to SUD. For instance, in UAE MindTales has been developed to help the follow up of persons with mood or anxiety symptoms and could be available for co-morbidity with SUD. Another example in Montreal is an innovative research project aiming at using technology-based psychological interventions to address cannabis related problems in young adults with psychosis. It helps to identify optimal psychological interventions that could be hosted by a mobile application (“iCanChange”). MindTales is an online platform for mental health support providing users with digital therapy, educational tools and access to mental health specialists. Universities across Abu Dhabi cater to local Emirati students and those from around the world, with different backgrounds and diverse cultures. University is well-known for being a highly stressful environment where students are prone to burn-out. To compound this issue, lack of access to acceptable or affordable counselling services leaves students in a vulnerable position. Rationale: Current university support services are limited by many factors, such as availability of on-campus counselors, access to mental health care under insurance coverage of the students, and financial restraints in addition to a multitude of personal and cultural factors such as social stigma. Objective: This study aimed to investigate the acceptability, efficacy and usability of digital mental health app, MindTales in the alleviation of symptoms of depression and anxiety, among university students. Methods: This research is meant to adapt and develop an acceptable and suitable digital therapy application using evidence-based techniques, such as Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), for the local culture. The goal is to determine the acceptability and usability of this digital therapy application in Universities in Abu Dhabi and Dubai where it may not be easy to access psychotherapy. This research involving a digital application was loaded on smart phone. This application uses standard Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) exercises.