Google Health Premium (formerly Fitbit Premium): What It Costs, What the Gemini Coach Does, and How It Compares in 2026

When a company renames a product, the rename is rarely the story. The story is what got added, what got repriced, and what quietly moved behind the paywall.

On May 7, 2026, Google announced that the Fitbit app is becoming the Google Health app, and Fitbit Premium is becoming Google Health Premium¹. In the same announcement, Google said the Gemini-powered health coach that had been in public preview since 2025 would exit preview and begin rolling out on May 19².

That combination — a rebrand, a price change, and an AI coach bundled into the subscription — puts an LLM health coach in front of Fitbit’s entire installed base at once. It is also the first time the company that ships Android has put a general-purpose LLM directly between you and your health data.

Here is what actually changed, what it costs, what the coach can and cannot do, and how the whole package stacks up against the other ways to buy AI coaching in September 2026.

The short answer

Google Health Premium costs $9.99/month or $99/year and includes a Gemini-built coach that reads your fitness, sleep, nutrition, cycle data, local weather, and — in the US only — your medical records¹². It is the cheapest ecosystem-level AI coach available, but it works best if you already wear a Fitbit or Pixel Watch.

Question	Answer (September 2026)
What is it now called?	Google Health app; subscription is Google Health Premium1
Price	$9.99/month or $99/year1
Previous price	$9.99/month or $79.99/year as Fitbit Premium — annual rose about $193
AI coach	Google Health Coach, built with Gemini; rollout began May 19, 2026 and reached all users May 26; live in 37 countries24
Devices at launch	Fitbit and Pixel Watch first; others “coming soon”2
iPhone	Yes — coach reached iOS users in February 20265
Medical records sync	US only2
Cheapest hardware entry	Fitbit Air, $99 (Stephen Curry Special Edition $129), with 3 months of Premium1
Bundled free with	Google AI Pro and Google AI Ultra tiers1

What actually changed in the Fitbit app?

Three things changed at once: the app was renamed Google Health, the subscription was renamed Google Health Premium and repriced from $79.99 to $99 per year, and the Gemini coach moved from limited preview to a paid feature available in 37 countries¹²⁴. Existing Fitbit users were upgraded automatically; Google Fit users migrate later in 2026¹.

The rename is not cosmetic. Google describes the new app as the place that brings together “all of your health data, from wearable devices, Health Connect, Apple Health and your medical records into a single place”¹. That is a different product thesis from Fitbit’s — Fitbit was a device companion, Google Health is a health data aggregator with a coach attached.

	Fitbit Premium (before)	Google Health Premium (now)
App name	Fitbit	Google Health1
Monthly price	$9.993	$9.991
Annual price	$79.993	$991
AI coach	Public preview, limited countries/devices5	Included, Gemini-built, 37 countries24
Medical records	Not integrated	Synced and summarized, US only2
Nutrition logging	Manual	Voice, image, or document2
Workout and mindfulness video library	Included	Still included4
Bundled into	—	Google AI Pro and Ultra1

Nothing visible was removed. What you are paying the extra $19 a year for is the coach.

What does Google Health Premium cost in 2026?

$9.99 per month or $99 per year, as announced May 7, 2026¹. The monthly price did not move; the annual price rose from $79.99, so annual buyers absorbed the entire increase³. Google Health Premium is also bundled at no extra cost into the Google AI Pro and Google AI Ultra subscription tiers¹.

The bundling detail matters more than the price rise. If you already pay for Google AI Pro or Ultra for Gemini, the health subscription is already in your account — which effectively makes the marginal cost of Google’s AI coaching zero for a subscriber population Google has spent two years building.

The Fitbit Air costs $99, or $129 for the Stephen Curry Special Edition, and every unit ships with three months of Google Health Premium included¹. It is a screenless tracker — no display, data goes to the phone. Against the subscription table above, that is the lowest hardware entry price into continuous AI health coaching currently on sale.

What can the Gemini coach actually do — and what can’t it?

The Google Health Coach synthesizes fitness and sleep metrics, nutrition and cycle tracking, environmental context like location and local weather, and personal medical records, acting as “your fitness coach, sleep expert and health and wellness advisor”². Its hard limits are device eligibility, US-only medical records, and the general reliability ceiling of LLM health advice.

Capability	What Google documents	The honest limitation
Fitness and sleep synthesis	Reads your metrics and coaches on them2	Only as good as the sensor feeding it — Pixel Watch 3 VO2max carried limits of agreement of −12.56 to 11.50 mL/kg/min against indirect calorimetry6
Medical record summarization	Records synced into the app and used by the coach2	US only2 — the single biggest regional asymmetry in the product
Nutrition logging	Voice, images, or documents; photo meal analysis2	No published accuracy data for the photo estimates
Environmental context	Location and local weather2	Useful for session timing, not for load management
Cycle tracking	Integrated into coaching context2	Coaching guidance here is not independently validated
Device support	Fitbit and Pixel Watch first, others “coming soon”2	If you wear an Apple Watch, Oura, or WHOOP, you are in the “coming soon” bucket
Platform	Reached iOS in February 20265	Available, but the deepest integration still runs through Google’s own hardware

That last row is the practical fork in the road. Google’s coach is an ecosystem play: it is excellent if your wrist already belongs to Google, and incomplete if it does not. App-led coaching solves the same problem from the other end — SensAI, for instance, reads whatever your wearable already writes into Apple HealthKit, so Apple Watch, Garmin, Oura, and WHOOP all arrive through the same pipe⁷. Neither approach is universally better; they are bets on different starting conditions.

How much does AI coaching cost across the market in 2026?

Google Health Premium at $99/year is the mid-point of the market. WHOOP runs $199–$359/year with hardware included, Oura is $69.99/year plus a separately purchased ring, Fitbod is $95.99/year, and SensAI is $69.99/year. Hevy Pro at $23.99/year is the cheapest, but it is a logger, not a coach.

Product	Subscription (September 2026)	Hardware required	Annual subscription cost	What the AI actually does
Google Health Premium	$9.99/mo or $99/yr1	Fitbit Air from $99; Pixel Watch1	$99	Gemini coach across fitness, sleep, nutrition, records2
WHOOP One	$199/yr8	Included in membership8	$199	Strain/recovery coaching, no screen
WHOOP Peak	$239/yr8	Included8	$239	Adds advanced health monitoring
WHOOP Life	$359/yr8	Included8	$359	Adds clinical-grade features
Oura	$5.99/mo or $69.99/yr9	Ring purchased separately9	$69.99	Readiness and sleep scoring
Fitbod	$15.99/mo or $95.99/yr10	None	$95.99	Algorithmic strength programming
SensAI	$6.99/mo or $69.99/yr7	None — reads existing wearables via HealthKit7	$69.99	LLM coach with memory over HRV, sleep, and performed sets
Hevy Pro	$2.99/mo or $23.99/yr11	None	$23.99	Logging and analytics, not coaching

Two things that table is saying. First, Google priced aggressively: $99 a year for a coach with medical-record context undercuts WHOOP by $100 and buys a broader health remit. Second, subscription price is not the whole cost — Oura’s $69.99 assumes you already bought a ring, and WHOOP’s $199 assumes you did not. We break the full picture down in our fitness app pricing and free-tier comparison.

Does AI coaching actually work?

Yes, on the best evidence available — and specifically on adherence. In a 2025 randomized clinical trial in JAMA, a fully automated AI-led Diabetes Prevention Program was noninferior to human coaching, and 93.4% of people referred to the AI arm actually started it, versus 82.7% referred to a human coach¹².

The trial, led by Dr. Nestoras Mathioudakis of the Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes & Metabolism at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, randomized 368 adults with prediabetes and overweight or obesity¹². The composite primary outcome — weight reduction, physical activity, and HbA1c — was achieved by 31.7% of the AI group and 31.9% of the human-coached group, a risk difference of −0.2%, meeting the prespecified noninferiority criterion¹².

Noninferior means “as good as,” not “better.” But the initiation gap is the number that should interest anyone buying a coach: an AI that people actually start beats a human they never book.

The wearable half of the evidence points the same way. A meta-analysis of 37 studies of Fitbit-based interventions found a mean increase of 950 steps per day and a mean weight reduction of 1.48 kg, with goal-setting the single most important intervention component¹³. A broader review of consumer activity trackers across controlled trials found significant increases in daily step count and in moderate-to-vigorous physical activity¹⁴.

That is the case for Google’s product: Fitbit hardware carries a substantial published behavior-change evidence base — 37 randomized trials pooled in a single meta-analysis¹³.

Where should you be skeptical?

Two places. First, LLM health advice has a documented reporting-quality problem: a 2025 systematic review of 137 chatbot health-advice studies found 99.3% evaluated closed-source models without identifying the version, and 65% used subjective criteria to define success¹⁵. Second, the sensors feeding the coach carry real error bars⁶¹⁶.

Dr. Bright Huo and colleagues at McMaster University reviewed those 137 studies and found that fewer than one in three addressed the ethical, regulatory, and patient-safety implications of clinical LLM integration¹⁵. That is a statement about the literature, not about Gemini specifically — but it means “AI health coach” is currently a category with no agreed evaluation standard.

Head-to-head testing is more encouraging. When GPT-4 was compared against human experts on 251 real cardiology questions, three independent cardiologists rated GPT-4’s answer superior in 52.6% of pairs; humans produced more high-accuracy answers but also more low-accuracy ones¹⁷. The consistent failure mode was nuanced clinical judgment — drug information and preliminary diagnoses¹⁷.

The data layer deserves the same scrutiny. A 2026 validation of the Google Pixel Watch 3 — Google-funded but independently conducted — by Rory Lambe and colleagues at University College Dublin found VO2max estimates had low bias but wide limits of agreement (−12.56 to 11.50 mL/kg/min, MAPE 8.65%), heart rate agreed well (MAPE 2.73%), and energy expenditure varied substantially between participants, at MAPE 15.02%⁶. Their conclusion was blunt: VO2max estimates “lack sufficient individual-level validity for clinical use”⁶.

Dr. Cailbhe Doherty of the School of Public Health, Physiotherapy and Sports Science at University College Dublin, senior author on that Pixel Watch analysis, reached a wider version of the same verdict in a living umbrella review of 24 systematic reviews covering 430,465 participants: roughly 11% of commercially released wearables have been validated for even one biometric outcome, representing about 3.5% of the validation work a comprehensive assessment would require¹⁶. Sleep staging is the weakest link — in laboratory testing against polysomnography, consumer devices showed high sensitivity for detecting sleep but low-to-medium specificity for wake, and inconsistent sleep-stage assignment¹⁸.

None of that makes the coach useless. It means a confident sentence from an AI coach is only as trustworthy as the number underneath it, and the number is noisier than the interface implies. We go deeper on which devices produce the most reliable recovery data in our Apple Watch vs Oura vs WHOOP vs Garmin comparison.

Who should pick what?

Pick Google Health Premium if you wear a Fitbit or Pixel Watch, want medical-record context, and are in the US. Pick WHOOP or Oura if recovery precision is the priority. Pick an app-led coach like SensAI if you already own a wearable and want training programming rather than general wellness advice.

If you…	Pick	Why
Already wear a Fitbit or Pixel Watch	Google Health Premium, $99/yr1	The coach is built for your device first2
Pay for Google AI Pro or Ultra	Google Health Premium	Already bundled at no extra cost1
Want the cheapest hardware entry	Fitbit Air, $99 + 3 months Premium1	Nothing else in the category starts this low
Are outside the US	Google Health Premium, with a caveat	Medical-record sync is US-only2
Care most about HRV and sleep precision	Oura at $69.99/yr9 or WHOOP at $199/yr8	Dedicated recovery instruments, not generalists
Already own an Apple Watch, Garmin, Oura, or WHOOP	SensAI, $69.99/yr7	Reads them all through HealthKit; no new hardware
Want structured strength progression	Fitbod ($95.99/yr) or SensAI107	Programming that closes the loop on performed sets
Just want to log lifts	Hevy Pro, $23.99/yr11	A logger is cheaper than a coach you won’t use

The category distinction worth holding onto: Google is building a health coach with fitness inside it. Fitbod, Hevy, and SensAI are building training products.

If your question is “am I sleeping enough and is my blood pressure trending badly,” Google’s remit is wider. If your question is “what should today’s session be given how I recovered and what I lifted on Tuesday,” a training app closes that loop and a general wellness coach does not.

Our ranking of the best AI personal trainer apps in 2026 covers that second category in depth.

Where does SensAI fit against this?

SensAI is app-led coaching at $6.99/month or $69.99/year that reads whatever wearable you already own through Apple HealthKit, with a conversational coach that remembers injuries and constraints across sessions⁷. It is narrower than Google Health Premium and deliberately so — no medical records, no photo nutrition logging, no hardware of its own.

The comparison runs on scope. Google’s coach can tell you your lipid panel moved and it rained on your planned run. SensAI cannot do either. What SensAI does is regenerate your training week against what you actually performed and how you actually recovered, using HRV, resting heart rate, and sleep trend as programming inputs rather than dashboard decoration⁷.

The device question is the other split. Google Health Coach launched for Fitbit and Pixel Watch first, with other devices “coming soon”². SensAI’s position is device-agnostic by construction: Apple Watch, Garmin, Oura, and WHOOP all write into HealthKit, so all four feed the same coaching decision today.

And the adherence evidence cuts across both. Dropout is the real enemy in this category — a meta-analysis of smartphone app trials found a pooled dropout rate of 26.2%, rising to 47.8% after adjustment for publication bias¹⁹. The coach you keep using beats the coach with the longer feature list. If you want to see how a general chatbot compares to either approach, we tested that directly in our guide to building a workout plan with ChatGPT.

Frequently Asked Questions

In short: Google Health Premium costs $9.99/month or $99/year, the annual price rose about $19 from Fitbit Premium’s $79.99, the Gemini coach launched for Fitbit and Pixel Watch first, it does work on iPhone, medical-record sync is US-only, and the subscription is bundled free with Google AI Pro and Ultra¹²⁵³.

Is Google Health Premium worth it?

At $99 per year it is worth it if you already wear a Fitbit or Pixel Watch, because the Gemini coach is built for those devices first and the subscription also carries the workout and mindfulness video library²⁴. If you wear an Apple Watch, Oura, or WHOOP, you are paying for an ecosystem you are only partly inside.

Google Health Premium vs WHOOP: which is better?

Google is cheaper and broader; WHOOP is narrower and more precise. Google Health Premium is $99/year plus a device bought separately — from $99 for the Fitbit Air, which includes three months of Premium¹. WHOOP One is $199/year with the strap included⁸. Google’s coach adds nutrition, cycle and US medical-record context²; WHOOP is a dedicated strain-and-recovery instrument with no screen.

What are the best Fitbit Premium alternatives?

Oura at $69.99/year plus a ring⁹ and WHOOP at $199–$359/year with hardware included⁸ are the recovery-first alternatives. For training rather than general wellness, SensAI is $69.99/year and Fitbod $95.99/year, neither requiring new hardware¹⁰⁷. Hevy Pro at $23.99/year is the cheapest option but logs workouts rather than coaching them¹¹.

Did Fitbit Premium get more expensive?

Yes, on the annual plan only. Fitbit Premium was $9.99 per month or $79.99 per year; Google Health Premium is $9.99 per month or $99 per year¹³. The monthly price is unchanged, so the roughly $19 increase falls entirely on annual subscribers. Annual still saves about $20 a year against paying monthly.

Do I need a Fitbit to use the Google Health coach?

At launch, effectively yes. Google states the coach is “launching first for eligible Fitbit and Pixel Watch users, with support for other devices coming soon”². The Google Health app itself can ingest data from Health Connect and Apple Health¹, but coach eligibility is the gate. The cheapest qualifying device is the $99 Fitbit Air¹.

Does the Google Health coach work on iPhone?

Yes. Google expanded the personal health coach public preview to iOS users in the US and several other countries in February 2026⁵, and the coach began its wider rollout as part of Google Health Premium on May 19, 2026, reaching all users by May 26². It is now live in 37 countries⁴. Deepest integration still assumes Google hardware on your wrist.

Is Google Health Premium included with Google AI Pro?

Yes. Google states that Premium plans “are automatically bundled as part of Google AI Pro and Ultra tiers”¹. If you already subscribe to either tier for Gemini access, Google Health Premium is included at no additional cost — which makes the effective price of Google’s AI health coaching zero for that group.

Can the coach read my medical records?

In the US, yes. Google Health syncs personal medical records into the app and the coach uses them as context². Outside the US, that capability is not available². It is the most genuinely differentiated thing in the product and the most regionally restricted.

How accurate is the data the coach is reasoning over?

Mixed, and better for some metrics than others. Pixel Watch 3 heart rate agreed closely with a chest-strap reference (MAPE 2.73%), while VO2max and energy expenditure showed wide individual-level error⁶. Across the category, only about 11% of released wearables have been validated for even one biometric outcome¹⁶, and sleep-stage assignment remains inconsistent against polysomnography¹⁸.

Bottom line

Google Health Premium is the best-priced ecosystem AI health coach in 2026 at $99 a year, and the only one that reads your medical records. It is weakest where platform plays usually are: device eligibility favors Google’s own hardware, and evaluation standards for LLM health advice do not yet exist¹²¹⁵.

Google did three things at once in 2026: it renamed Fitbit, it raised the annual price by about $19, and it put a Gemini coach inside the subscription and rolled it out across 37 countries¹²⁴.

The strongest parts of the offer are real and worth saying plainly. A $99 hardware entry point, a $99 annual subscription that undercuts WHOOP by $100, free inclusion for Google AI Pro and Ultra subscribers, and medical-record synthesis that nobody else in consumer fitness offers — that is a serious product, backed by 37 randomized trials of Fitbit-based interventions¹³.

The weak parts are equally real. Device eligibility still favors Google’s own hardware, medical records stop at the US border, and the evaluation standards for LLM health advice do not yet exist¹⁵.

The useful mental model: Google is selling a health coach with fitness inside it, and it is the best-priced one available. If what you actually need is a training coach that reads your recovery and rewrites next week’s sessions, that is a different product — and it does not require you to change what is on your wrist. Our ranking of the best AI workout apps in 2026 covers that side of the market.

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References

Footnotes

1. Google. “Introducing the new Google Fitbit Air and Google Health app.” The Keyword, Google Blog, May 7, 2026. https://blog.google/products-and-platforms/products/google-health/google-health-fitbit/ ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹² ↩¹³ ↩¹⁴ ↩¹⁵ ↩¹⁶ ↩¹⁷ ↩¹⁸ ↩¹⁹ ↩²⁰ ↩²¹ ↩²² ↩²³ ↩²⁴ ↩²⁵ ↩²⁶ ↩²⁷ ↩²⁸ ↩²⁹

2. Abramson A, Head of Product, Google Health. “Google Health Coach is becoming globally available.” The Keyword, Google Blog, May 7, 2026. Coach rollout begins May 19, 2026. https://blog.google/products-and-platforms/products/google-health/google-health-coach/ ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹² ↩¹³ ↩¹⁴ ↩¹⁵ ↩¹⁶ ↩¹⁷ ↩¹⁸ ↩¹⁹ ↩²⁰ ↩²¹ ↩²² ↩²³ ↩²⁴ ↩²⁵ ↩²⁶ ↩²⁷ ↩²⁸ ↩²⁹ ↩³⁰

3. Sharma A. “Fitbit Premium is becoming Google Health Premium and it’ll cost more.” Android Authority, May 7, 2026. Cited for the prior Fitbit Premium annual price of $79.99; note this article reports the new annual price as $99.99, whereas Google’s own newsroom states $99. https://www.androidauthority.com/google-health-premium-price-inclusions-features-3664507/ ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶

4. Google. “Sign up or manage your Google Health Premium subscription.” Google Health Help Center. Accessed September 21, 2026. https://support.google.com/googlehealth/answer/14237941?hl=en ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷

5. Google. “Fitbit’s personal health coach is expanding to more people in public preview.” The Keyword, Google Blog, February 10, 2026. https://blog.google/products-and-platforms/devices/fitbit/personal-health-coach-expansion/ ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵

6. Lambe R, Schumann M, Hamilton S, et al. “The accuracy of VO2 max, heart rate and energy expenditure measurements from Google Pixel Watch 3.” PLoS One. 2026;21(9):e0356808. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0356808 ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵

7. Apple App Store listing: “SensAI: Fitness Sensei” (Track ID 6738963099), Origami, Inc. Feature set, HealthKit integration, and in-app purchase pricing. Accessed September 21, 2026. https://apps.apple.com/us/app/sensai-fitness-sensei/id6738963099 ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸

8. WHOOP. “WHOOP Membership Options — Compare Plans & Features.” WHOOP, 2026. One $199/yr, Peak $239/yr, Life $359/yr, hardware included. https://www.whoop.com/us/en/membership/ ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹

9. Oura. “Oura Membership.” Oura Support. Accessed September 21, 2026. $5.99/month and $69.99/year in the US. https://support.ouraring.com/hc/en-us/articles/4409086524819-Oura-Membership ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

10. Apple App Store listing: “Fitbod: Gym & Fitness Planner” (Track ID 1041517543), Fitbod Inc. In-app purchase tiers verified September 18, 2026. https://apps.apple.com/us/app/fitbod-gym-fitness-planner/id1041517543 ↩ ↩² ↩³

11. Apple App Store listing: “Hevy - Workout Tracker Gym Log” (Track ID 1458862350), Hevy Studios S.L. Hevy Pro in-app purchase tiers, accessed September 21, 2026. https://apps.apple.com/us/app/hevy-workout-tracker-gym-log/id1458862350 ↩ ↩² ↩³

12. Mathioudakis N, Lalani B, Abusamaan MS, et al. “An AI-Powered Lifestyle Intervention vs Human Coaching in the Diabetes Prevention Program: A Randomized Clinical Trial.” JAMA. 2025;334(23):2079-2089. doi:10.1001/jama.2025.19563 ↩ ↩² ↩³

13. Ringeval M, Wagner G, Denford J, Paré G, Kitsiou S. “Fitbit-Based Interventions for Healthy Lifestyle Outcomes: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.” Journal of Medical Internet Research. 2020;22(10):e23954. doi:10.2196/23954 ↩ ↩² ↩³

14. Brickwood KJ, Watson G, O’Brien J, Williams AD. “Consumer-Based Wearable Activity Trackers Increase Physical Activity Participation: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.” JMIR mHealth and uHealth. 2019;7(4):e11819. doi:10.2196/11819 ↩

15. Huo B, Boyle A, Marfo N, et al. “Large Language Models for Chatbot Health Advice Studies: A Systematic Review.” JAMA Network Open. 2025;8(2):e2457879. doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2024.57879 ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

16. Doherty C, Baldwin M, Keogh A, Caulfield B, Argent R. “Keeping Pace with Wearables: A Living Umbrella Review of Systematic Reviews Evaluating the Accuracy of Consumer Wearable Technologies in Health Measurement.” Sports Medicine. 2024;54(11):2907-2926. doi:10.1007/s40279-024-02077-2 ↩ ↩² ↩³

17. Jo E, Song S, Kim JH, et al. “Assessing GPT-4’s Performance in Delivering Medical Advice: Comparative Analysis With Human Experts.” JMIR Medical Education. 2024;10:e51282. doi:10.2196/51282 ↩ ↩²

18. Chinoy ED, Cuellar JA, Huwa KE, et al. “Performance of seven consumer sleep-tracking devices compared with polysomnography.” Sleep. 2021;44(5):zsaa291. doi:10.1093/sleep/zsaa291 ↩ ↩²

19. Torous J, Lipschitz J, Ng M, Firth J. “Dropout rates in clinical trials of smartphone apps for depressive symptoms: A systematic review and meta-analysis.” Journal of Affective Disorders. 2020;263:413-419. doi:10.1016/j.jad.2019.11.167 ↩