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PERSPECTIVE article

Front. Psychiatry
Sec. Digital Mental Health
Volume 15 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2024.1433438
This article is part of the Research Topic Prescription Digital Therapeutics in Psychiatry View all 3 articles

From Palm to Practice: Prescription Digital Therapeutics for Mental and Brain Health at the National Institutes of Health

Provisionally accepted
Michele Ferrante Michele Ferrante 1*Layla E. Esposito Layla E. Esposito 2Luke E. Stoeckel Luke E. Stoeckel 3
  • 1 National Institute of Mental Health (NIH), Bethesda, United States
  • 2 Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NIH), Bethesda, Maryland, United States
  • 3 National Institute on Aging (NIH), Bethesda, Maryland, United States

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Prescription Digital Therapeutics (PDTs) are emerging as promising tools for treating and managing mental and brain health conditions within the context of daily life. This commentary distinguishes PDTs from other Software as Medical Devices (SaMD) and explores their integration into mental and brain health treatments. We focus on research programs and support from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), discussing PDT research supported by the NIH’s National Institute on Child Health and Development (NICHD), National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), and National Institute on Aging (NIA). We present a hierarchical natural language processing topic analysis of NIH-funded digital therapeutics research projects. We delineate the PDT landscape across different mental and brain health disorders while highlighting opportunities and challenges. Additionally, we discuss the research foundation for PDTs, the unique therapeutic approaches they employ, and potential strategies to improve their validity, reliability, safety, and effectiveness. Finally, we address the research and collaborations necessary to propel the field forward, ultimately enhancing patient care through innovative digital health solutions.

    Keywords: prescription digital therapeutic (PDT), software as a medical device (SaMD), digital mental health assessment and interventions, aging adults, youth & adolescence, Digital psychiatry, Computational Psychiatry, Digital Health Technologies (DHTs)

    Received: 16 May 2024; Accepted: 19 Aug 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Ferrante, Esposito and Stoeckel. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Michele Ferrante, National Institute of Mental Health (NIH), Bethesda, United States

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.