Check out tips for using Moodr and how to teach your patient how to use it.​

Tips for using Moodr: Moodr adds to clinical monitoring by increasing the accuracy of daily information. Improving decision-making with the detailing of this information is evident.

Many aspects of the clinical situation can be easily accessed and viewed during appointments. In general, the quality of completion and consequent usefulness of the app are directly related to the time spent educating the patient on how to use it.

Moodr is easy, but details in its use can amplify the benefits obtained with it.

Establishing a friendly bond between the healthcare professional, patient, and Moodr can lead to better outcomes.

Suggestions: 

• Use Moodr in your appointments routinely to compare the app to the information provided verbally by the patient.
• The app can be an indirect measure of the quality of the doctor-patient relationship established through adequate follow-up of the proposed recommendations.
• Propose Moodr to the patient in the initial phases of medication adjustment until symptoms and side effects stabilize.
• After this time, the app can be continued or put into hibernation as long as the symptoms are stable, being easily reactivated when necessary. 
• Help the patient install Moodr during the first appointment.
• Set the filling time and enter the proposed medications.
• Be careful when “calibrating” the patient to fill out the affective chart adequately.
• Explain, with easy-to-understand details, the differences between the gradations of the mood chart: mild depression (for example, “few symptoms and in a more subjective way”; moderate: “a greater number of symptoms, other people notice it, there are important difficulties in performance ” and severe: “inability, even if momentary, to function, many symptoms, suicidal ideation or psychosis”). 
• Always suggest recording the moment of greatest severity of symptoms during the day.
• Highlight the possibility of simultaneous occurrence (and consequent registration) of the two poles of the disorder.
• To test the patient's understanding, ask him to fill in the day before the appointment: “Let's see how you would fill in yesterday.”
• Upon return, evaluate the quality of the filling and possible inconsistencies; reinforce Moodr benefits.
• If there are surprises, ask for details about what was recorded (such as a record of a hypomanic episode in a supposedly unipolar patient).
• Insist especially on adherence in the most difficult, prolonged cases, with polypharmacy and diagnostic doubts. Target symptoms relevant to the case, and evaluate adherence to the app in the app summary item.
• Visually assess the evolution of mood symptoms (or sleep, appetite, etc.) in relation to the medication in use. 
• It may be useful to compare the weeks, fortnights, or months after and before the introduction of any medication. 
• Consider, for example, counting days in each degree of severity (so many severe days, so many moderate days, so many mild days, and so many normal days) to evaluate trends.
• There may be gradual but discrete changes in symptoms that are more evident when comparing short or long periods.
• There may also be discrepancies between the days recorded and the dominant mood on the day of the appointment, which can be questioned/confirmed with the patient. 
• Instruct the patient to send screenshots of the app between meetings, if necessary. You can also keep track of progress through these prints.
• How long to use Moodr? In general, as long as there is no stability. When symptoms are in remission and in the absence of side effects, Moodr can be put into “hibernation” (non-filling) and can be reactivated given any relevant change to the treatment.
• Use the weekly summary periods to evaluate longer times and potential successes/mistakes in the case. 
• Outsource the filling in cases of resistance or incapacity of the individual.
• Frequent use of Moodr increases the psychiatrist's familiarity with the tool. Greater experience with the app allows you to take full advantage of its resources and potential benefits.

Limitations: This is a clinical app, not specifically for research, so there is a simplification of the possibilities for describing symptoms and their usefulness in mood disorders research.

It also does not need to be maintained indefinitely, only during stabilization and mainly during the adjustment of medication.

More serious issues, such as the immediate risk of suicide, are beyond the scope of Moodr.