This app provides psychoeducation for depression. Psychoeducation is usually used as a comparison condition to represent an inert treatment for which an active treatment can be compared (e.g., Ebert et al., 2014). However, a meta-analysis of psychoeducation for depression and anxiety found that brief, passive psychoeducational interventions can be effective at reducing depression, albeit with small effect sizes (Donker, Griffiths, Cuijpers, & Christensen, 2004). Therefore, psychoeducation may be a useful first-step intervention for those suffering from depression.
Ebert, D. D., Lehr, D., Baumeister, H., Boß, L., Riper, H., Cuijpers, P., … & Berking, M. (2014). GET. ON Mood Enhancer: efficacy of Internet-based guided self-help compared to psychoeducation for depression: an investigator-blinded randomised controlled trial. Trials, 15(1), 39
Donker, T., Griffiths, K. M., Cuijpers, P., & Christensen, H. (2009). Psychoeducation for depression, anxiety and psychological distress: a meta-analysis. BMC medicine, 7(1), 79.