Any opinions on Brightside?

[futureapppsy2]

It appears to be a online telehealth company specifically for anti-depressants that combines anti-depressant prescribing and med management with web-based psychotherapy from (apparently non-prescriber) therapists. Looks to have zero F2F patient-provider contact.

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[clausewitz2]

It appears to be a online telehealth company specifically for anti-depressants that combines anti-depressant prescribing and med management with web-based psychotherapy from (apparently non-prescriber) therapists. Looks to have zero F2F patient-provider contact.

I don't love the idea of speaking with the patient remotely for only 10 minutes and then relying entirely on the validity of whatever self-assessment tools they are using going forward. I guess it's not so different from some integrated care model's with psychiatrists in a consulting role. I am tempted to sign up for the free membership just to see what their assessment tools are like.

I assumed this would just be an SSRI/SNRI merry-go-round pharmacologically but their standard med list also includes Parnate and Anafranil so it might be valuable for some people. Not sure how they are going to keep out all people who might have a bipolar d/o and if it becomes clear over time that someone falls in that category, are they terminating care? Same for substance abuse - what happens when someone lets slip they wake and bake?

If the money was reasonable wouldn't be so terrible to have a small panel of people you spend a couple hours a week on, reviewing forms, tracking their progress, adjusting medication doses, etc. Depends on how far off the beaten algorithm they let you go if necessary, amount of autonomy probably the critical question. I would assume lithium or thyroid hormone is going to be a non-starter due to labs.

If it was actually hooking people up with basically ongoing brief consultation with someone who really knew their stuff, could be valuable. Probably not what would happen in practice.

 

[WisNeuro]

Checked it out, the providers (therapists and prescribers) actually went to legit schools, so they at least have that. I'd be interested to know the panel size, or what the maximum panel is set at.