Digital therapeutics” vs. “Mental health apps”: A growing debate on standards, regulation and efficacy

The effi­ca­cy of Men­tal Health Apps (phar­mafo­rum): In Jan­u­ary, PLOS Dig­i­tal Health pub­lished a study which claimed that there’s “sparse” data to sup­port the effi­ca­cy of most men­tal health apps. In their meta-ana­ly­­sis of pub­lished stud­ies, the authors found uni­ver­sal defi­cien­cies and con­clud­ed that there’s no con­vinc­ing evi­dence that app-based inter­ven­tions deliv­er mean­ing­ful out­comes. Without…

Read More

On Awe, Wonder, Biofeedback, CBSM, Virtual Reality, Privacy, Being Wrong, and more

Wel­come to a new edi­tion of Sharp­Brains’ e‑newsletter, this time fea­tur­ing eleven time­ly resources and research find­ings for life­long brain health and men­tal well-being. #1. “Awe is the feel­ing we expe­ri­ence when encoun­ter­ing vast things that we don’t under­stand. Around the world and in cul­tur­al­ly vary­ing ways, stud­ies show, we expe­ri­ence awe in response to…

Read More

Happify Health raises $73M to deepen partnerships with pharmaceutical companies and insurance payers

Hap­pi­fy Health rais­es $73M to expand its dig­i­tal ther­a­peu­tic care deliv­ery capa­bil­i­ties (Mobi­Health News): Found­ed in 2012, Hap­pi­fy is best known for dig­i­tal pro­grams that pro­vid­ed auto­mat­ed self-guid­ed sup­port across var­i­ous areas of men­tal health and well­ness, such as stress man­age­ment for employ­ees or health plan mem­bers. Should the user need addi­tion­al sup­port, the platform…

Read More