The National Health Service (NHS) in England to roll-out nine online cognitive-behavioural therapies (CBT) for adults with anxiety or depression

Online depres­sion ther­a­py giv­en go-ahead in Eng­land (BBC News):

Nine online talk­ing-ther­a­py treat­ments for anx­i­ety or depres­sion have been giv­en the green light to be used by the NHS in England.

… The new dig­i­tal ther­a­pies are deliv­ered via a web­site or an app and use cog­ni­tive-behav­iour­al ther­a­py (CBT).

They pro­vide an alter­na­tive way of access­ing sup­port, which may be more con­ve­nient for some, the Nation­al Insti­tute for Health and Care Excel­lence (NICE) says. They could also free up resources and help reduce the wait for care.…

Mark Chap­man from NICE said: “One of our pri­or­i­ties is to get the best care to peo­ple fast while at the same time ensur­ing val­ue for mon­ey for the tax­pay­er — these dig­i­tal­ly enabled ther­a­pies do both.”

… NICE will look at the evi­dence from their use over the next few years to work out how cost-effec­tive they are.

The Announcement:

Eight dig­i­tal­ly enabled ther­a­pies to treat depres­sion and anx­i­ety in adults con­di­tion­al­ly rec­om­mend­ed by NICE (Nation­al Insti­tute for Health and Care Excellence):

These dig­i­tal­ly enabled ther­a­pies, some of which are already in use, are con­di­tion­al­ly rec­om­mend­ed for use fol­low­ing a for­mal assess­ment with an NHS Talk­ing Ther­a­pies ther­a­pist, as they may not be the right choice for everyone.

Mark Chap­man, inter­im direc­tor of med­ical tech­nol­o­gy and dig­i­tal eval­u­a­tion, at NICE, said: “Our rapid assess­ment of these eight tech­nolo­gies has shown they have promise. Devel­oped using tried and test­ed CBT meth­ods, each one has demon­strat­ed it has the poten­tial to pro­vide effec­tive treat­ment to the many thou­sands of peo­ple who live with these con­di­tions. We want these new treat­ment options to be avail­able for peo­ple to use as quick­ly as pos­si­ble and we also want to make sure they are clin­i­cal­ly effec­tive and rep­re­sent good val­ue for the NHS. The addi­tion­al evi­dence col­lect­ed dur­ing this peri­od will help us do that…”

Six tech­nolo­gies were con­di­tion­al­ly rec­om­mend­ed for help­ing adults with anx­i­ety disorders.

For body dys­mor­phic dis­or­der (BDD):

- Per­spec­tives with sup­port pro­vid­ed by a high inten­si­ty ther­a­pist trained in treat­ing BDD.

For gen­er­alised anx­i­ety symp­toms or unspec­i­fied anx­i­ety disorder:

- Beat­ing the Blues and Space from Anx­i­ety (Sil­ver­Cloud) with sup­port pro­vid­ed by a psy­cho­log­i­cal well­be­ing prac­ti­tion­er or high inten­si­ty therapist.

For post-trau­mat­ic stress dis­or­der (PTSD):

- iCT-PTSD and Spring with sup­port from a high inten­si­ty ther­a­pist trained in treat­ing PTSD.

For social anx­i­ety disorder:

- iCT-SAD with sup­port pro­vid­ed by a high inten­si­ty ther­a­pist who is trained in treat­ing social anx­i­ety disorder.

For depres­sion, the com­mit­tee con­di­tion­al­ly rec­om­mend­ed the use of three online CBT pro­grammes Beat­ing the Blues, Deprex­is, and Space from Depres­sion (Sil­ver­cloud) as treat­ment options.

Dig­i­tal­ly enabled ther­a­pies in NHS Talk­ing Ther­a­pies ser­vices must be deliv­ered with prac­ti­tion­er or ther­a­pist sup­port includ­ing reg­u­lar mon­i­tor­ing and man­age­ment of patient safe­ty and progress.

News in Context:

• Rec­om­men­da­tions: Health tech­nol­o­gy eval­u­a­tion | Ref­er­ence number:HTE9 | Pub­lished: 16 May 2023
• NICE in the UK issues rec­om­men­da­tion for Sleepio app, the dig­i­tal cog­ni­tive behav­iour­al ther­a­py for insom­nia by Big Health
• CVS Health: Cog­ni­tive behav­ioral ther­a­py (CBT) apps may help you more than sleep­ing pills
• A call to action: We need the right incen­tives to guide eth­i­cal inno­va­tion in neu­rotech and healthcare