Digital Therapeutics for Mental Health and Addiction : The State of the Science and Vision for the Future

Digital Therapeutics for Mental Health and Addiction: The State of the Science and Vision for the Future presents the foundations of digital therapeutics with a broad audience in mind, ranging from bioengineers and computer scientists to those in psychology, psychiatry and social work. Sections cover cutting-edge advancements in the field, offering advice on how to successfully implement digital therapeutics. Readers will find sections on evidence for direct-to-consumer standalone digital therapeutics, the efficacy of integrating digital treatments within traditional healthcare settings, and recent innovations currently transforming the field of digital therapeutics towards experiences which are more personalized, adaptable and engaging.

This book gives a view on current limitations of the technology, ideas for problem-solving the challenges of designing this technology, and a perspective on future research directions. For all readers, the content on cultural, legal and ethical dimensions of digital mental health will be useful.

Nick Jacobson is a tenure-track assistant professor in the departments of Biomedical Data Science and Psychiatry within the Center for Technology and Behavioral Health in the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth College. He directs the AI and Mental Health: Innovation in Technology Guided Healthcare (AIM HIGH) Laboratory.

Dr. Jacobson researches the use of technology to enhance both the assessment and treatment of anxiety and depression. His work has focused on (1) enhancing precision assessment of anxiety and depression using intensive longitudinal data, (2) conducting multimethod assessment utilizing passive sensor data from smartphones and wearable devices, and (3) providing scalable, personalized technology-based treatments utilizing smartphones. He has a strong interest in creating personalized just-in-time adaptive interventions and the quantitative tools that make this work possible. To date, Dr. Jacobson’s smartphone applications which assess and treat anxiety and depression have been downloaded and installed by more than 50,000 people in over 100 countries.

Dr. Tobias Kowatsch is Assistant Professor for Digital Health at the University of St. Gallen and the Scientific Director of the Center for Digital Health Interventions, a joint initiative of the Department of Management, Technology and Economics at ETH Zurich and the Institute of Technology Management at the University of St. Gallen. In close collaboration with his interdisciplinary team and research partners, Tobias designs digital health interventions ("digital pills") at the intersection of information systems reserach, comuter science and behavioral medicine. He helped initiate and participates in the on-going development of MobileCoach, an open source platform for ecological momentary assessments, health monitoring and digital health interventions. He is also co-founder of the ETH Zurich and University of St. Gallen spin-off company Pathmate Technologies that creates and delivers digital clinical pathways.

Dr. Lisa A. Marsch is the Director of the Dartmouth Center for Technology and Behavioral Health, a designated “Center of Excellence” supported by the National Institute on Drug Abuse at the National Institutes of Health.
She is also the Director of the Northeast Node of the National Drug Abuse Clinical Trials Network based out of Dartmouth and the Andrew G. Wallace Professor within the Department of Psychiatry at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth College. And, she leads a national “Science of Behavior Change” initiative supported by the National Institutes of Health with partners at Dartmouth, Stanford, Arizona State University, Drexel, and MIT.
In addition to directing this national Center, Dr. Marsch has personally been Principal Investigator on 35 grants, largely from the National Institutes of Health. She has led the development, evaluation and implementation of technology-based therapeutic tools for addiction treatment, HIV prevention, mental health, chronic pain management, substance abuse prevention, smoking cessation, and binge eating disorder. Her work in technology and addiction treatment has been particularly pioneering, as she is widely recognized as having led the development of one of the most widely tested and evidence-based mobile intervention for addiction treatment.
Dr. Marsch publishes extensively and is a regular keynote speaker at national and international scientific meetings (including invited presentations at the White House, Congressional briefings, the World Bank, and for the US Surgeon General). She has served as a consultant to the Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse at the World Health Organization. She serves on the National Advisory Council to the National Institute on Drug Abuse at the National Institutes of Health. And, she serves on the Health Information Technology Policy Committee on Advanced Health Models and Meaningful Use for the U.S. Office of the National Coordinator.
She also led the development of a seminal book from Oxford University Press on the state of the science of leveraging technologies in transforming behavioral health care.