Evidence of Success

i-spero® benefits from a clinical investigation initiated in five European countries to determine both clinical and cost effectiveness. The study follows over 900 patients using i-spero® for up to a year in order to determine the positive impact on:

Healthcare and societal costs

When patients return to work

Reducing relapse

Treatment compliance

Background

Depression is the leading cause of disability in the world today which places an enormous burden on the healthcare system and the wider economy.

Antidepressants are effective in treating depression but have a slow clinical onset of action, taking 4 to 6 weeks before changes in mood become apparent.

Up to 50% of patients do not respond to the first medication prescribed. Patients may have to change both dose and drug before finding an effective treatment.

This often results in significant delays before patients return to good mental health.

Antidepressant medication improves mood by causing patients to interpret emotional information in a more positive way (e.g. "the glass is half full rather than half empty")

i-spero® is a set of computer based tasks designed specifically to measure this change in the processing of emotional information.

i-spero® detects whether a patient is not responding to an antidepressant within 1 week of beginning treatment rather than the current 4-6 weeks.

This can reduce time to remission for a depressed person improving outcomes and reducing the treatment burden on primary care.

Findings

49% of patients respond to antidepressant treatment after 8 weeks.

Detect with an accuracy of 74%, whether a patient being treated for depression is likely to respond to their treatment*

i-spero® demonstrably changes GP prescribing behaviour.

i-spero® is highly valued by patients.

There is high compliance and adherence with i-spero®.

*After approximately one week of antidepressant treatment. Response is defined as a greater than 50% reduction of baseline symptoms of depression using standard self-report questionnaires.

Find out how i-spero® can help your patients

If you are a primary care provider, or are responsible for the purchasing/commissioning of primary care or specialist mental health services we would welcome a discussion.