cognitive behavioural therapy

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

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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. [Read more…] about NICE in the UK issues rec­om­men­da­tion for Sleepio app, the dig­i­tal cog­ni­tive behav­iour­al ther­a­py for insom­nia by Big Health

Pear Therapeutics raises $175M and goes public via SPAC deal raising the profile of prescription digital therapeutics

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Dig­i­tal health firm Pear goes pub­lic, rais­ing $175 mil­lion (phar­mafo­rum):

Pear will make its debut on the exchange today after com­bin­ing with Thim­ble Point – a spe­cial pur­pose acqui­si­tion com­pa­ny (SPAC) – in a deal that side­stepped the con­ven­tion­al ini­tial pub­lic offer­ing (IPO) route and has pro­pelled its val­u­a­tion to around $1.6 bil­lion … Pear spe­cialis­es in pre­scrip­tion dig­i­tal ther­a­peu­tics (DTx) based on cog­ni­tive behav­iour­al ther­a­py (CBT) tech­niques that can deliv­ered remote­ly to [patients via a dig­i­tal device. It has three apps approved by the FDA, includ­ing reSET and reSET‑O for peo­ple liv­ing with sub­stance and opi­oid use dis­or­ders, respec­tive­ly, and a tool for chron­ic insom­ni­acs called Som­ryst. [Read more…] about Pear Ther­a­peu­tics rais­es $175M and goes pub­lic via SPAC deal rais­ing the pro­file of pre­scrip­tion dig­i­tal therapeutics

Trend: Harnessing digital tech to improve mental health and wellness

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From mind­ful­ness apps to vir­tu­al ther­a­py ses­sions, dig­i­tal tools offer instant access to well­ness resources (The Globe and Mail):

In 2015, Brie Code was work­ing at lead­ing video game com­pa­ny Ubisoft as lead arti­fi­cial intel­li­gence pro­gram­mer when she real­ized that many peo­ple she knew – about half, by her esti­ma­tion – found video games bor­ing. [Read more…] about Trend: Har­ness­ing dig­i­tal tech to improve men­tal health and wellness

Study: Self-guided sleep app Sleepio, combined with standard care for depression and anxiety, delivers better outcomes than standard care alone

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Study backs ben­e­fit of insom­nia DTx Sleepio on men­tal health (pharmapho­rum):

The study – pub­lished in the jour­nal Behav­iour Research and Ther­a­py – test­ed the Sleepio app devel­oped by dig­i­tal health spe­cial­ist Big Health as an add-on to stan­dard NHS care for anx­i­ety and depres­sion under the improv­ing access to psy­cho­log­i­cal ther­a­pies (IAPT) policy.

Patients who signed up to use Sleepio – a six-week dig­i­tal cog­ni­tive behav­iour­al ther­a­py (CBT) course – achieved sig­nif­i­cant­ly bet­ter improve­ment in symp­toms com­pared to con­trols, with an IAPT recov­ery rate of near­ly 65% ver­sus 58% in the con­trol group. [Read more…] about Study: Self-guid­ed sleep app Sleepio, com­bined with stan­dard care for depres­sion and anx­i­ety, deliv­ers bet­ter out­comes than stan­dard care alone

The landscape of digital mental health apps: huge unmet needs, quality concerns, app stores asked to ensure transparency

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Address­ing the men­tal health cri­sis (Phar­ma Field):

Each day we find out more about the men­tal health effects of the pan­dem­ic. Ear­ly on, the Office for Nation­al Sta­tis­tics found that one in five Britons report­ed symp­toms of depres­sion, com­pared with one in 10 before. And, accord­ing to a recent study led by the Uni­ver­si­ty of Not­ting­ham and King’s Col­lege Lon­don, stress, anx­i­ety and depres­sion were all sig­nif­i­cant­ly high­er in par­tic­i­pants com­pared with ‘pop­u­la­tion norms’, with 64% of the par­tic­i­pants report­ing symp­toms of depres­sion and 57% report­ing symp­toms of anx­i­ety. [Read more…] about The land­scape of dig­i­tal men­tal health apps: huge unmet needs, qual­i­ty con­cerns, app stores asked to ensure transparency

Repetitive negative thinking may increase (or perhaps be caused by) cognitive decline and Alzheimer’s pathology

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Dementia: negative thinking linked with more rapid cognitive decline, study indicates

Demen­tia affects an esti­mat­ed 54 mil­lion peo­ple world­wide. There no cure, but reports indi­cate that approx­i­mate­ly a third of demen­tia cas­es may be pre­ventable, which is why many researchers have begun to focus on iden­ti­fy­ing risk fac­tors. This would allow for bet­ter per­son­alised inter­ven­tions that may be able to reduce risk, delay, or even pre­vent the onset of dementia.

Cur­rent research shows that genet­ics, high blood pres­sure, and smok­ing are all risk fac­tors for devel­op­ing demen­tia. But a lot of peo­ple don’t realise that there is also a rela­tion­ship between men­tal ill-health and high­er demen­tia risk too. Stud­ies have shown that depres­sion, anx­i­ety, and post trau­mat­ic stress dis­or­der are all linked to a high­er risk of devel­op­ing demen­tia in old­er age. Our recent study builds on this research by exam­in­ing whether a style of think­ing that is com­mon to these men­tal health con­di­tions is asso­ci­at­ed with indi­ca­tors of Alzheimer’s dis­ease, the most com­mon type of dementia.

Peo­ple expe­ri­enc­ing men­tal ill health fre­quent­ly engage in a style of think­ing called “Repet­i­tive Neg­a­tive Think­ing”. This style of think­ing involves the ten­den­cy to have neg­a­tive thoughts about the future (wor­ry) or about the past (rumi­na­tion), and these thoughts can feel uncontrollable.

In 2015, I devel­oped a hypoth­e­sis called [Read more…] about Repet­i­tive neg­a­tive think­ing may increase (or per­haps be caused by) cog­ni­tive decline and Alzheimer’s pathology