Synergistic and Scalable: A Review of Integrated Digital and Biological Interventions

The use of digital therapeutics in psychiatry is rapidly expanding. From internet-based psychotherapy to cognitive training modules, digital therapeutics have the potential to scale evidence-based psychiatric care. Concurrently, biological treatments that modulate neuroplasticity are reshaping expectations for the speed and durability of symptom change. This review describes clinical evidence for integrating digital and biological interventions to leverage treatment-induced windows of enhanced neuroplasticity. It provides an overview of existing digital therapeutics and then reviews synergistic combination treatments, outlining evidence that pairing approaches may improve the efficacy of one or both components. Finally, it discusses clinical implications for psychiatrists, including current use cases, practical limitations, and evolving regulatory and reimbursement pathways for digital therapeutics. Overall, integrated digital and biological treatments have promise for enhancing treatment outcomes and improving access. Future directions include adequately powered, well-controlled randomized trials, mechanistic studies of neuroplasticity, and real-world effectiveness research.