NICE has issued its first digital psychological therapy briefing and concluded that online and mobile programme Deprexis should be trialed on the NHS.
The Institute said the digital therapy (pictured above) could be an effective alternative treatment for adults with mild to moderate depression and expects a cohort of around 200 people in England to be the first to use it.
The briefing is the first fruit of a programme NICE launched last year to assess the use of digital therapies, such as computer programmes or applications, to treat anxiety and depression.
Deprexis will now undergo a two-year trial as part of NHS England’s Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) programme.
The digital therapy sees patients guided by a therapist, who can view what part of the programme each person is using, and exchange secure messages with users as needed.
The intervention allows patients to complete modules of cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) at their convenience, thus avoiding the need to attend therapist appointments in person.
Deprexis is available via any device with internet access and is mainly text-based, but with some audio and visual content. It also offers worksheets and summary sheets and daily motivational messages delivered by email or text message.
NHS patients would be given free access to Deprexis, but the digital therapy’s cost in the UK is not yet agreed, NICE said in a statement. A German language version can be accessed for around €297.50 per person for 90 days’ access.
First launched in 2007 by Hamburg-based Gaia Group, Deprexis is CE marked as a class 1 medical device in Europe and has FDA approval for the US market.
In 2015 Gaia signed a sales and marketing deal with French pharma company Servier for the therapy in Germany, where it is branded as deprexis24.
The partners expanded that agreement last year to all countries but the US and Canada, with Servier seeing it as part of its ‘patient-centred approach to healthcare’.
