The Food and Drug Administration has cleared the use of the first prescription digital treatment for major depressive disorder. Known as Rejoyn, the treatment is a smartphone app that’s designed to be used along with antidepressant medications.
“Rejoyn represents a novel and exciting adjunctive treatment option to address major depressive disorder symptoms that complements the current standard of care,” John Kraus, M.D., executive vice president and chief medical officer at Otsuka, which makes the treatment, said in a press release. “While traditional approaches are often effective, many are left with only a partial response to treatment.”
Rejoyn is not FDA-approved, but because it’s classified as a low- to medium-risk medical device, Otsuka had to prove that it was just as safe and effective as another marketed device.
Up to 18.5 percent of Americans say they’ve ever been diagnosed with depression, and it’s a condition that’s also common in menopause. However, up to 30 percent of people who take antidepressant medications for depression, which is a common treatment, are what’s considered partial responders—meaning, they still have symptoms of depression.
But how does Rejoyn work? Here’s what you need to know.
How Rejoyn works
Rejoyn is a prescription app you download on your phone that’s designed to be used along with antidepressant medication to treat major depressive disorder. Major depression includes having symptoms of a depressed mood or loss of interest in usual activities most of the time for at least two weeks, according to the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). Those symptoms interfere with daily life and can include a persistent sad, anxious or empty mood; feelings of hopelessness; feeling frustrated or irritable; feeling guilty; dealing with fatigue; having trouble sleeping; and having changes in appetite, NIMH says.
The app, which is intended to relieve symptoms of depression, is a six-week treatment program. It aims to enhance emotional control through emotional training exercises for the brain, along with short therapeutic lessons. Patients who use Rejoyn are asked to do a series of lessons and exercises six days a week, with a rest day on Saturday.
Those include something called Emotional Faces Memory Task, where people are asked to ID and compare emotions that are displayed on several faces. While it seems random, there is some research that suggests that these exercises can stimulate areas of the brain that are thought to be involved in depression and lower the risk of depressive symptoms.
What the research showed
But while research found that people who used Rejoyn had an improvement in their depressive symptoms from where they started, the average change wasn’t significantly different from what people experienced using the control app.
Rejoyn is designed for people who are at least 22 and have been diagnosed with major depressive disorder. It’s also meant to be used along with taking antidepressant medication. While it isn’t available just yet, Otsuka said it will likely be available by the end of the year. The app requires a prescription, so you’ll need to see your doctor first. It’s not clear right now how much Rejoyn will cost.
