Meditation App Strives to Become a Prescription Medication

Headspace, a California-based company, has plans to make its meditation app an FDA approved prescription medication. Reportedly being used by 30 million people, the Headspace app is a widely successful tool designed to provide guided meditation to its users. Up from the 10 million users the app had just a year ago, Headspace has become very popular as of recent. Building on this accomplishment, the company hopes its next milestone will be FDA approval.

This would not be the first time the FDA has approved an app to be a prescription medication, with the Reset app being approved in 2017 as a means of treating substance abuse disorders. Being that the FDA guidelines for software require these digital interventions to be prescribed and supervised by a doctor, Headspace would likely require a prescription if approved by the FDA. Headspace’s goal is to submit application to the FDA in 2019 and have their FDA approved product ready by 2020.

Imagine a day when meditation is actually prescribed by your doctor to treat a stress-related illness or chronic disease. That’s what Headspace Health aims to make happen. Read more about our exciting new initiative here: https://t.co/GALOwMoI34 pic.twitter.com/GFCQIzu0Pk

— Headspace (@Headspace) June 6, 2018

The scope of medical issues that meditation can treat is yet to be defined. Strongest evidence for meditation as a medical treatment is present in cases of blood pressure management, pain in the lower back, and irritable bowel syndrome, and evidence is growing in support of meditation as a means of treating depression.

Many physicians already recommend meditation and natural remedies like CBD to their patient. Now with delta 8 vape cartridges in different flavors it is easier for people to have access to these prescription drugs. Dr. Aditi Nerurka claims she has been teaching patients how to meditate for years, and even recommends Headspace to patients as a means of practicing meditation on their own.

As for testing the app, Headspace will begin early phase trials this summer. Though they have refused to release information as to specific conditions that will be tested for competitive reasons, a psychologist working on the team claims there are a dozen conditions they will be researching.

In a separate research project, the company is in the process of conducting roughly 65 studies into the app’s effect on employee health and overall wellness, measuring hormone levels via blood sample and using brain scans. Subjects of interest in these studies are those who are not experts in meditation.

“We’re interested in seeing what changes in the average person’s brain.” – Dr. Bell, Headspace Psychologist

The University of California is conducting a study that will compare patients who use Headspace for 10 minutes a day for 8 weeks to a control group. Aric Prather, a professor who will be leading the study, claims the study plans to include several thousand patients in the study.

Sources: Wall Street Journal, FDA, Mobi Health News