The DGC has completed data collection for the National Digital Mental Health Study, conducted in collaboration with Apple, a nationwide research effort designed to better understand how symptoms of depression and anxiety may be measured using data from everyday digital devices.

Veronica Tozzo, PhD, a researcher with the UCLA Depression Grand Challenge, has been awarded funding by the Huo Family Foundation to study how patterns of smartphone and smartwatch use relate to depression and anxiety in young adults.

The UCLA Depression Grand Challenge, in collaboration with Apple, launched the National Digital Mental Health study, open for nationwide recruitment. The study leverages digital sensors in iPhone and Apple Watch to illuminate the relationship between objective, everyday measures (e.g., sleep, heart rate) and symptoms of depression and anxiety.

Preliminary findings from the UCLA Depression Grand Challenge’s Digital Mental Health Study were featured in a May 2, 2024, Time publication focused on the 2024 TIME100 Most Influential People in Health.

The UCLA Depression Grand Challenge achieved a significant milestone on April 30, 2024, when the Digital Mental Health Study (DMHS) completed data collection, 26 months after starting.

The UCLA Depression Grand Challenge is part of a consortium tapped by Wellcome, a global charitable organization that funds discovery research, to conduct a scoping research project on digital sensing for mental health research.

Elaine Hsiao, PhD, director of the UCLA Goodman–Luskin Microbiome Center and an expert on the ways in which the gut microbiome influences neurobiology, has been awarded funding by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development to lead a new maternal mental health research study.

Leading mental health and computer science researchers, industry experts, advocates and funders who participated in the Digital Sensing Workshop held at UCLA in the winter of 2023 are seeking additional review and input from colleagues and other stakeholders for a shared vision, common standards and recommendations they created to facilitate the use of digital sensing technologies in mental health research.

More than 50 leading mental health and computer science researchers, industry experts, advocates and funders from six countries came together at UCLA Feb. 28 – Mar. 2, 2023 to collaborate on a shared vision and common goals for digital sensing technologies in mental health research.