APA: With digital mental health going mainstream, will/ should psychologists be able to “prescribe” interventions?

Mental health, meet venture capital (APA): Until recently, mental health was a relative blip on the radar of venture capitalists. But over the past few years, and particularly since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, private investors have made a dramatic run for this space, pouring $3.1 billion into mental health ventures by the third quarter of 2021 alone, according to Rock Health, a seed fund that supports startups working in digital health. That represents a third of all digital health funding for 2021, more than 7 times the amount of funding placed in such ventures in 2015. The reasons for this boom are clear. The pandemic unleashed enormous new mental health needs, with anxiety and depression rates among U.S. adults skyrocketing from 11% in 2019 to 42% in December 2020, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. COVID also brought more people to telehealth and other tech options for treatment, and celebrities’ public admissions of their own struggles helped destigmatize mental health in the public eye … The new interventions target a wide range of conditions, including anxiety, depression, insomnia, trauma, and substance use, and a number aim to reduce stress and improve well-being through mindfulness, meditation, and weight loss apps… Is the rise in funding a fad that will disappear once the pandemic is better controlled or when people tire of using these products? Given the current lack of regulation, how can people choose interventions t...
Source: SharpBrains - Category: Neuroscience Authors: Tags: Brain/ Mental Health Technology & Innovation anxiety APA COVID depression digital mental health FDA FDA-approved insomnia meditation mindfulness prescription Psychology Rock Health substance use trauma venture-capital Source Type: blogs