This week the United States Department of Defense (DoD) announced that it had partnered with its agency, the National Center for Telehealth and Technology (T2) created a smartphone application, called T2 Mood Tracker, to help members of the military who have been deployed track their mood and stress levels. The app specifically tracks anxiety, depression, general well-being, life stress, post traumatic stress and brain injury. Users can also correlate changes to their medication regimen or home or work environment to changes in their moods. The tracking data can help physicians and therapists observe trends and provide treatment instead of relying solely on patient recall.

The app is currently only available for Android devices, but T2 expects to create an iPhone version soon.

Earlier this year the T2 Mood Tracker won an Apps 4 Army competition. According to the D0D Live blog post at the time: "Service members track their moods on a touch screen using a visual analogue scale which allows users to choose a point on a color continuum to reflect their current emotions, such as feelings of sadness, depression, anxiety or stress."

The same group created the iBreathe app for iPhone that is set to launch next January. (More on that app here.)

The T2 Mood Tracker app brings two things to mind: Intel Digital Health's research work by Margaret Morris and Diversinet's work with the US Army for wounded warriors. It does not appear that either of these groups are involved with the launch or development of T2 Mood Tracker. Here's more information on Morris' mood tracking apps from NPR. Revisit Diversinet's mobile phone-based services for wounded warriors here.

For more on the app, check out the T2 Mood Tracker app information page