Here is a sneak peak into Chapter 3 of the textbook“Digital Therapeutics for Mental Health and Addiction: The State of the Science and Vision for the Future”.

Chapter 3: First wave of scalable digital therapeutics: Internet-based programs for direct-to-consumer standalone care for mental health and addiction.

In this chapter, the authors Campbell, Brezing and Shulman outline the development of internet-based programs to help treat mental health and substance use issues. This shift was partly driven by the treatment gap and lack of access, as well as by advances in technology and increased internet usage. The authors look into some of the advantages and disadvantages of internet-based programs versus mobile applications. Some of the early systems developed for patients with substance use issues were the therapeutic education system (TES), the CHESS–ACHESS program, and CBT4CBT. Internet-based treatments for mental health issues typically deliver disorder-specific interventions. More recently, transdiagnostic treatments have become more prevalent, often targeting the common mental health issues of depression and anxiety disorders.

The authors Campbell, Brezing and Shulman sum up their findings on internet-based treatments. “There is now an extensive evidence base for the efficacy of IBPs for substance use and mental health disorders. IBPs retain a number of strengths that make evidence-based behavioral health interventions available to broad audiences, including low cost development, less burden to end users to monitor changes to the program and to smartphone operating systems, and access to the service across devices with internet capacity (pp. 25).” 

The authors go on to describe some of the challenges of offering internet-based treatments such as ensuring that the intended use is reached and patients remain engaged and satisfied with their treatment. The authors conclude the chapter with an overview of research findings into internet-based treatments and a discussion of how to scale up internet-based treatments.

Interested in this book?

• You can learn more and order a copy from Elsevier.
• Further posts on the book will be published on our Project Page.