The FDA recently approved the marketing of the first-ever prescription digital therapeutic to be used in the treatment of substance use disorder (SUD).
The reSET® mobile app, developed by Pear Therapeutics, is approved to assist individuals undergoing outpatient therapy for alcohol, cocaine, marijuana, and stimulant addictions. The application is not intended for use in treating opioid dependence, however.
The reSET® application is designed to provide a form of treatment called cognitive behavioral therapy. It teaches SUD patients practical skills that help them abstain from using drugs and stick with their rehab programs, and provides a series of reward-based incentives. reSET® is not approved as a standalone treatment. Instead, it is designed to be used in conjunction with outpatient addiction therapy.
“This is an example of how innovative digital technologies can help provide patients access to additional tools during their treatment,” said Carlos Peña, Ph.D., M.S., director of the Division of Neurological and Physical Medicine Devices in FDA’s Center for Devices and Radiological Health. “More therapy tools means a greater potential to improve outcomes, including abstinence, for patients with substance use disorder.”
reSET® was reviewed through the FDA’s de novo premarket review pathway, a regulatory scheme for low- to moderate-risk devices for which there is no legally marketed predicate to which the device can claim substantial equivalence. The FDA reviewed data from a multi-site, unblinded 12-week clinical trial of 399 patients. In this trial, patients with alcohol, cocaine, marijuana, and stimulant SUD who used reSET® demonstrated statistically significant greater adherence to abstinence (40.3 percent) compared to patients not using reSET® (17.6 percent).
Corey McCann, President and CEO of Pear Therapeutics stated in a company press release:
“We believe that prescription digital therapeutics hold promise in improving patient outcomes across a wide range of central nervous system disorders including psychiatry, neurology and pain, and will become a vital part of tomorrow’s treatment paradigm across all disease areas.”
Regulatory approval of reSET® may represent an important step forward in the use of mobile applications to treat people with psychological, neurological and substance abuse disorders.