Mym3 is checklist that allows you to screen
yourself for potential depression and anxiety symptoms including bipolar and PTSD.
You can then have a personalized report shared with you about how your
depression is affecting you. This checklist is like a progress report to see
how well you’re coping over time.
This mobile version
of the checklist is adapted from M-3 Information's existing mymoodmonitor.com Web site. It
provides the same, scientifically validated, mental health questionnaire,
optimized for smart phones.
There is a very important feature, potential life saver - for people in deep
distress and at risk of suicide, mym3 provides a direct, one-button link to
call a national suicide hotline.
Interactive applications of this sort, offering users validated medical
assessment and feedback in real-time, has the potential to greatly improve the
dynamics of healthcare delivery for individuals who might otherwise suffer in
silence. The value of this technology to college and military populations,
among others, is considerable.
The "mym3 app" is available to iPhone (telephone and data) and iTouch
(data only) users through the Apple iTunes applications store, where it is for
sale for $2.99. M-3 Information contributes a portion of the proceeds to Mental
Health America.
Main
Purpose of M-3 Checklist
The M3 website encourages
individuals to complete the M3 Screen, a private, self-rated checklist for
potential mood and anxiety symptoms. The checklist responses trigger a feedback
page indicating each individual’s relative risk for Depression, an Anxiety
Disorder, Bipolar Disorder and PTSD. The Screen responses and the resulting M3
analysis of risk may be printed, emailed, or securely accessed online by a
designated health care professional, all at the discretion of the user.
The information provided by the M3 expedites and organizes a discussion between
doctor and patient of relevant mental health issues at their next office visit,
helping to direct the clinician toward a more accurate diagnosis. By providing
parallel educational material for patients, the M3 encourages compliance and
long-range follow-up of progress.
The M3 is not designed to diagnose
illness on its own. Rather, it is meant to elicit symptoms that may indicate a
psychiatric illness. Physicians must use the symptoms checklist responses and
the risk assessment provided as a basis for formulating a diagnosis and
treatment. The M3 website does provide physicians with supplemental information
that guides them through this formulation, including relevant follow-up questions
to ask. A medication overview chart clearly matches the choices of medications
with the symptoms the drugs are intended to treat. There is an outline of each
drug’s side effects and potentially harmful drug interactions. Based on this
information, doctors can readily determine the most appropriate medication.
How
Often?
If you are under ongoing medical or
therapeutic treatment, you may need to monitor your progress. Once a treatment
has begun, whether psychotherapy or medication, it is recommended to record
your progress on a weekly basis for the first month, biweekly for months 2 and
3, and monthly thereafter. Checking in weekly for the entire duration of your
therapy will certainly do no harm, but M3 does not endorse monitoring your
symptoms more often than once a week.
M-3 Checklist Validation
Since the publication of the validation article in March, 2010 the M-3
Checklist has been taken by people in over 120 countries and all 50 states. The
M-3 Checklist was validated in a study performed at the University of North
Carolina and reported in the March 2010 issue of the Annals of Family Medicine.
The study was based on the responses of 647 patients at the University of North
Carolina Family Practice Medicine Clinic. Patients can track their M3 score on
Microsoft HealthVault via mymoodmonitor.com
About M-3 Information, LLC
The M3 was developed by a team of
mental health, strategic communications, and information management experts,
including Robert M. Post, MD, head of the Bipolar Collaborative Network;
Bernard M. Snyder, MD, assistant clinical professor of psychiatry at Georgetown
University and a cognitive behavioral therapist; Michael L. Byer, director of
M-3 Information; Larry Culpepper, MD, family practice program at Boston
University; Gerald Hurowitz, MD, assistant clinical professor of psychiatry at
Columbia University and a clinical psychopharmacologist. The free and private
screener is available at www.mymoodmonitor.com and is independently funded by
M-3 Information without pharmaceutical industry support.
iTunes Program Link: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/mym3/id366238553?mt=8
