Present study: the FOCUS ADHD app
ADHD
ADVERSE EVENTS
The FOCUS ADHD App was developed to help monitor patients with ADHD in the ADHD outpatient program (PRODAH) of the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul UFRGS) at the Hospital de Clínicas de Porto Alegre (HCPA), Brazil. Through a Task Manager contained within the App, FOCUS combines multiple features and functionalities to support all aspects of the treatment trajectory for ADHD patients including treatment information registration (therapeutic plan including medication, dosage, frequency, and other clinical information), patient management support (daily pill reminders and adherence tracking, weekly ADHD symptoms evaluation, and adverse events registering), an option to add a user-customized reward system, and a robust library of psychoeducational contents. Finally, the App allows the integration of a treatment support network that can be shared with family members and health professionals, at the user’s discretion.Although promising, many mHealth solutions lack robust scientific clinical evidence of their efficacy [The main hypotheses considered for this study were a) the use of the FOCUS ADHD App during pharmacological treatment (App Group) would increase treatment adherence compared with a treatment as usual (TAU) only Control Group; b) providing a significant discount on stimulant medication (25%), combined with the use of the App (App + Discount Group) would increase medication treatment adherence compared with the TAU-only Control Group and the App Group; and c) users of the App (App Group and App + Discount Group) would obtain higher scores on an ADHD knowledge scale compared with the TAU-only Control Group.