Assessment of Acute Stress and Chronic Stress for Mental Health Management by a Fully Integrated Wearable Biosystem

Abstract

Mental stress has been a paramount concern worldwide, serving as a critical element for the optimal functioning and thriving of families, communities, and societies. However, the evaluation of the mental stress state in current clinical practice relies on symptom criteria associated with self-reported psychometric tools and behavioral manifestations, which raises the concerns of both accuracy issue and difficulty in identifying classifications. Continuous and quantitative assessments of mental stress-related physical/biomarkers based on wearable technologies is a very feasible way to solve the hurdle, while the implementation of such technology at clinical scales remains quite challenging and has yet to be documented. Herein, we report the collection of advances in sensing strategies, system integration, and model construction for mental health monitoring and management. A set of physical/biomarkers (cortisol, glucose, body temperature, and heart rate) are selected based on the systematic studies on the stress-correlated physiological pathways to form the marker panel. Corresponding stable and sustainable sensing systems are established upon the optimization of nanomaterials and nanostructure design. Comprehensive indicators are further generated based on algorithm bonuses for acute and chronic stress assessment. The fully integrated reusable wearable biosystem demonstrates its effectiveness in identifying, quantifying, and tracking the prognosis of stress in paradigmatic stress scenarios and clinical applications of social anxiety disorder/depression. The technology reported here presents a promising solution for customized mental stress management to facilitate the development of healthcare in psychological well-being.