NICE in the UK issues recommendation for Sleepio app, the digital cognitive behavioural therapy for insomnia by Big Health

Sleepio becomes first dig­i­tal ther­a­peu­tic to receive NICE guid­ance (Mobi­Health­News):

The Nation­al Insti­tute for Health and Care Excel­lence (NICE) has rec­om­mend­ed the Sleepio app as an effec­tive alter­na­tive to sleep­ing pills.

In its guid­ance, NICE states the app, cre­at­ed by dig­i­tal ther­a­peu­tics (DTx) firm Big Health, is a safe and effec­tive treat­ment for peo­ple suf­fer­ing from insomnia.

… The Sleepio app uses an arti­fi­cial intel­li­gence (AI) algo­rithm to pro­vide peo­ple with tai­lored dig­i­tal cog­ni­tive behav­iour­al ther­a­py for insom­nia (CBT‑I).

Jeanette Kusel, act­ing direc­tor for med tech and dig­i­tal, NICE, said: “Our rig­or­ous, trans­par­ent, and evi­dence-based analy­sis has found that Sleepio is cost sav­ing for the NHS com­pared with usu­al treat­ments in pri­ma­ry care. It will also reduce peo­ple with insomnia’s reliance on depen­dence form­ing drugs such as zolpi­dem and zopiclone.

“This is a good exam­ple of where a dig­i­tal health tech­nol­o­gy can help the NHS. The evi­dence has shown using Sleepio reduces the num­ber of GP appoint­ments peo­ple with insom­nia need and will also cut the num­ber of pre­scrip­tions for sleep­ing pills deliv­ered by pharmacists.”

The new guidance by NICE (May 20th, 2022):

Sleepio to treat insom­nia and insom­nia symptoms

1.1 Sleepio is rec­om­mend­ed as a cost sav­ing option for treat­ing insom­nia and insom­nia symp­toms in pri­ma­ry care for peo­ple who would oth­er­wise be offered sleep hygiene or sleep­ing pills.

1.2 For peo­ple who may be at high­er risk of oth­er sleep dis­or­der con­di­tions, such as in preg­nan­cy, or in peo­ple with comor­bidi­ties, a med­ical assess­ment should be done before refer­ral to Sleepio.

1.3 More research or data col­lec­tion is rec­om­mend­ed on Sleepio for peo­ple who are eli­gi­ble for face-to-face cog­ni­tive behav­iour­al ther­a­py for insom­nia (CBT?I) in pri­ma­ry care. This is because there is lim­it­ed clin­i­cal evi­dence to show how effec­tive Sleepio is com­pared with face-to-face CBT?I.

… At a price of £45 per per­son, Sleepio is cost sav­ing com­pared with usu­al treat­ment in pri­ma­ry care. This is based on an analy­sis of pri­ma­ry care resource use data before and after Sleepio was intro­duced in 9 GP prac­tices. Health­care costs were low­er at 1 year, most­ly because of few­er GP appoint­ments and sleep­ing pills prescribed.

News in Context:

• Study: Self-guid­ed sleep app Sleepio, com­bined with stan­dard care for depres­sion and anx­i­ety, deliv­ers bet­ter out­comes than stan­dard care alone
• CVS Health: Cog­ni­tive behav­ioral ther­a­py (CBT) apps may help you more than sleep­ing pills
• First Dig­i­tal Health For­mu­la­ry by Express Scripts includes CBT-based pro­grams to treat depres­sion, anx­i­ety and insomnia
• The FDA clears Som­ryst, Pear’s dig­i­tal ther­a­peu­tic to treat chron­ic insomnia
• A call to action: We need the right incen­tives to guide eth­i­cal inno­va­tion in neu­rotech and healthcare