Many people believe that the reliance on digital tools has had adverse effects on the psychological development and mental health of humans, particularly on children.

However, recent breakthroughs in therapy have demonstrated that specific digital devices directed to stimulate very specific neural circuitry have precisely the opposite effect: they alleviate disorders rooted in the brain. Digital Therapeutics (DTx) is a new category of medicine that deals with chronic psychological and physical disorders. As the awareness of mental illness is rising, research about DTx is expanding. Although drug medication continues to dominate treatment for Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) patients, DTx is gaining attention as the more effective treatment for ADHD patients.
Digital Therapeutics (DTx) is evidence-based therapeutic interventions driven by high-quality software programs to prevent, manage, or treat a medical disorder.

The companies that are working on DTx define it as the advanced software based on the platform of mobile application, video games, virtual reality, Artificial Intelligence, and more that can provide the cure, manage the chronicle disorders for patients. This field has not been established fully throughout the world. Thanks to the efforts that several researchers made to provide the therapy through software-based form, the attempts and results have accumulated enough to make a new category in the medical field. DTx is especially effective in complex chronic conditions, such as ADHD.

Most chronic diseases are preventable and hardly dependent on daily behaviors. DTx has more advantages to control easily in patients’ lives by developing healthy routines with its software-based interventions. DTx provides continuous feedback to make patient to build daily habits that can impact on their health.
Project EVO is DTx in form of video game to engage patients with superlative graphics and system of reward to prevent ADHD that is made by Akili Interactive Lab. “The technology at its core is a set of algorithms that can render sensory stimulus in very specific ways,” Eddie Martucci, the CEO of the Akili Interactive Lab said, and he added, “The delivery mechanism, almost like the analogy of the capsule, is the video game … we’re stimulating very specific neural circuitry, but the patient feels like they are experiencing a video game.” Through Project EVO, the ADHD group has shown improvements in measures of attention, memory and impulse control.

 Some researchers worried that the effect of drug medication might be better than DTx, but the result of DTx treatment was analogous to Atomoxetine - ADHD drug medication.

Despite the business of DTx is still in the early stages, DTx has the potential to become more effective than the drug usage medication and prevention not only for ADHD patients but also a variety of disorders and conditions. Digital devices advance pediatric medicine, and this innovative and effective tool reminds us that not all digital tools impede human well-being.

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