Just-in-Time-Adaptive Interventions in Mental Health: A Scoping Review

Just-In-Time Adaptive Interventions (JITAIs) intend to encourage change by delivering appropriate support, at the right time, at the right place, and only when needed. JITAIs use mobile technologies (e.g., geolocations, mobile questionnaires) to monitor individual’s behaviors and to determine when and which intervention to provide. By taking advantage of new technologies to anticipate and capture a person’s needs at a particular moment, JITAIs have the potential to intervene in ways that traditional interventions cannot. JITAIs have been studied, mainly in areas such as physical activity, weight loss, and smoking cessation. In the domain of mental health, JITAIs are of potential interest because symptoms are often dynamic, dependent on contextual factors, and highly variable within individuals. Although JITAIs have been regarded as a promising ‘future direction’ for interventions in mental health disorders, it is understudied compared with other areas.