The British National Health Service is giving approval to apps for mentally ill people in spite of there being no evidence they work, researchers claim today.
Some 1,500 apps are on the market, available for down-loading – but only 32 pieces of research on their effectiveness have ever been published, according to Simon Leigh, a health economist at Liverpool University.
Writing in the journal Evidence Based Mental Health, he says the NHS library lists 27 apps for mental health and 14 of these are for depression and anxiety.
Just four of these provide any supporting scientific evidence while just two have been properly evaluated for effectiveness, he says.
"Confidence in, and the validity of, the claims made by apps that fail to apply such metrics must be considered as low at best, suggesting that the true clinical value of over 85% of NHS accredited mental health apps is at present impossible to determine.
“Given that three in ten individuals with an untreated mental health issue now opt to pay for private treatment on account of limited NHS availability, the purchase and use of apps that are yet to demonstrate objective clinical benefit is not only a potential waste of money, but also likely to have compounding effect on levels of anxiety in those with the greatest need and least access to effective treatment."
He adds: “In order to ensure that apps don’t do more harm than good, it is important that those presently recommended by the NHS apps library that either fail to demonstrate the evidence underlying the methodological approach taken, or evidence of effectiveness in use, are removed."
Perspective: App based psychological interventions: friend or foe? Evidence Based Mental Health 13 October 2015; doi: 10.1136/en-2015-102203 [abstract]
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