Mobile phone–based interventions for mental health show promise of effectiveness, but what does the evidence tell us about what needs to come next?

The current manuscript is a commentary on “Mobile phone–based interventions for mental health: A systematic meta-review of 14 meta-analyses of randomized controlled trials”. Although embedded within a nuanced discussion, one of the primary conclusions readers have taken from the meta-analysis was “we failed to find convincing evidence in support of any mobile phone–based intervention on any outcome”, which seems to contradict the entirety of the evidence presented when taken out of context of the methods applied. In evaluating whether the area produced “convincing evidence of efficacy,” the authors used a standard that appeared destined to fail. Specifically, the authors required “no evidence of publication bias”, which is a standard that would be unlikely to be found in any area of psychology or medicine. Second, the authors required low to moderate heterogeneity in effect sizes when comparing interventions with fundamentally different and entirely dissimilar target mechanisms. However absent these 2 untenable criteria, the authors actually found highly suggestive evidence of efficacy (N > 1,000, p