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MoodSync

MoodSync for clinicians

Patient-reported mood data is often messy, retrospective, or missing at the visit.

Why MoodSync for clinicians

0–3 self-rating scales modeled on familiar clinical anchors
Sleep and medication adherence plotted with mood, day by day
Mood values live on the patient's device, optionally syncing through their own private iCloud (CloudKit). No data is sent to a MoodSync server.

If a patient mentions MoodSync at an appointment, here is what they are bringing to the visit — and where its limits are.

What it logs

  • A daily 1–5 mood (Very Low / Low / Neutral / Good / Great), with optional 0–3 severity scales for depression, elevation, irritability, and anxiety in a Details section. The compact ordinal approach borrows from screeners like the GAD-72006, HAM-D1960, and YMRS1978; MoodSync's scales are short self-ratings inspired by them, not the validated instruments themselves.
  • Sleep hours per night, typed by the patient.
  • A daily "meds taken" yes/no toggle. Context like dose changes goes in the notes field.
  • Multiple entries per day are supported, with a calendar pill per day and a Day Detail tap-through.

What it is not

  • Not a diagnostic tool. The app does not produce a diagnosis or a clinical-grade severity score.
  • Not a replacement for the validated rating scales. If you need a YMRS or PHQ-9 score, administer the instrument.
  • Not connected to any EHR. There is no portal, no web view, and no clinician account.

How to read the chart in 30 seconds

The default view is a calendar with a colored mood pill per day (averaged from the patient's entries), tap-through to per-day detail (mood scales, sleep hours, meds toggle, notes). Scroll back four weeks. Look for:

  • Stretches of 2s or 3s on a single axis (depressive or elevated runs)
  • Drift in sleep hours that precedes the mood change
  • Adherence gaps that line up with mood changes

If the patient has Pro, the Insights tab summarizes those at a glance: 2-week trend, best/hardest weekday, weekday-vs-weekend sleep, mood with vs without meds, and an automatic prodrome warning when low sleep meets rising elevation. Each card cites the research it rests on.

Smartphone-based self-monitoring has been studied in randomized trials in bipolar disorder2015. Ambulatory assessment in general adds signal that retrospective interviews tend to miss2013.

Privacy posture

Mood values live on the patient's device, with optional sync through their own private iCloud. There is no MoodSync account or server. The full breakdown is on the privacy policy.

Related reading

Sources

  1. Young RC, Biggs JT, Ziegler VE, Meyer DA (1978). A rating scale for mania: reliability, validity and sensitivity, British Journal of Psychiatry. link
  2. Hamilton M (1960). A rating scale for depression, Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery, and Psychiatry. link
  3. Spitzer RL, Kroenke K, Williams JB, Löwe B (2006). A brief measure for assessing generalized anxiety disorder: the GAD-7, Archives of Internal Medicine. link
  4. Faurholt-Jepsen M, Frost M, Vinberg M, et al. (2015). Smartphone-based self-monitoring in bipolar disorder: an RCT, JAMA Psychiatry. link
  5. Trull TJ, Ebner-Priemer U (2013). Ambulatory assessment, Annual Review of Clinical Psychology. link