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Apps to manage stress, virtual reality headsets to treat phobias: mental health is gradually making its way through digital technology. A step forward for this sector that is too often forgotten and little monetized in France.
Mental health applications are multiplying, sometimes on the border between well-being and therapy. They range from support for quitting smoking to more specific care, such as this virtual game for people suffering from social anxiety, which leads them to confront the crowd.
“Drug treatment is not an end in itself: what helps patients is the social bond, the fact of finding an activity. And apps can help with that“, explained psychiatrist Déborah Sebbane, director of the World Health Organization (WHO) Collaborating Center for Research and Training in Mental Health.
Digital everywhere
In a society riveted on screens, digital plays an extremely important role, especially in the field of health.
“Today, digital is found in the field of care, patient records, self-help tools, information research on the internet. There are over 10,000 apps in the world“, she listed, noting”a very strong will from the supervisory authorities to engage digital health“.
Thus, the French government launched in October the acceleration strategy Digital health, endowed with 650 million euros. The sector has begun to structure itself, and the collective MentalTechwhich brings together 7 mental health start-ups, was launched in March.
Faced with long waiting lists before getting an appointment with the shrink, “there is an urgent need to find new solutions“, explained psychiatrist Fanny Jacq, mental health director for the teleconsultation company. Qareat the initiative of the collective.
“Digital is an opportunity, the idea is to deploy ethical solutions and put them forward“, explained the co-founder of the app of “psychological support” My Sherpa. “The offer is wide, but people get a little lost. The idea of the collective is to guide users“, she added, defending herself from wanting to replace the caregiver with machines.
Parisanté Campus, a place that aims to bring together various players in health research, recently inaugurated in the capital, also welcomes start-ups in the sector. For its Director General, Professor of Medicine Antoine Tesnières, “these initiatives will have value if they are part of a comprehensive approach“.
Among the young shoots hosted, we find in particular ResilEyes Therapeuticswhich develops solutions for victims of post-traumatic stress.
Its leader, Yannick Trescos, wants to be realistic: “Digital will not solve everything, it is out of the question to replace a psychologist or a health professional“. The start-up is working on therapeutic programs, backed by more traditional monitoring, and ultimately aims for reimbursement by social security.
The limits of digital
The tools are varied and sometimes confusing: an American team has developed a mental health coach, Woebotwhich, according to the site, would form “a therapeutic connection” without a human therapist in three to five days.
Will the shrinks of the future be robots, capable of diagnosing, or even preventing? There is thus research on digital phenotyping in mental health. For our computers, it would be a question of deducing our present and future mental state, from our clicks on the web, or by using the data recorded by our connected objects.
“What will happen to someone whose data suggests they will be diagnosed with psychosis with 90% certainty within the next six months?“, wondered the German professor of psychiatry Gerhard Gründer on the site Mind.
As for the scientific character of the apps, it’s a bit like the “Wild West” for some players. “There is a great opacity on this subject. Few apps have clinical validity“, underlined Yannick Trescos. His company, ResilEyes Therapeuticsaims to begin clinical trials this year.
The question of data confidentiality arises. Health data must be hosted by a duly certified organization, but this is not the case for “emotional” data, noted Yannick Trescos. A major question, according to the specialists interviewed, who plead for better information for patient users.