“To do nothing is not an option”: The NHS Confederation releases digital mental health whitepaper

Sep­tem­ber 12, 2023  | Com­ments Off on “To do noth­ing is not an option”: The NHS Con­fed­er­a­tion releas­es dig­i­tal men­tal health whitepaper

The NHS Con­fed­er­a­tion–the mem­ber­ship organ­i­sa­tion for health­care providers in Eng­land, Wales and North­ern Ire­land– has just released a quite com­pre­hen­site 45-page whitepa­per titled Max­imis­ing the poten­tial of dig­i­tal in men­tal health. Some of the high­lights: To do noth­ing is not an option. If we don’t make more progress we miss a key oppor­tu­ni­ty to make…

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Next: Harnessing Neuroplasticity, Medication AND Psychotherapy to treat mental health conditions

Sep­tem­ber 6, 2023  |

There is mount­ing recog­ni­tion in the sci­en­tif­ic com­mu­ni­ty that com­bin­ing dif­fer­ent treat­ment approach­es for men­tal health con­di­tions can cre­ate a ben­e­fit greater than the sum of its parts. As a clin­i­cal psy­chol­o­gist and neu­ro­science researcher, I have been work­ing to inte­grate insights from both fields to expand treat­ment options for those suf­fer­ing from depres­sion, anx­i­ety and…

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Time for a universal “exercise prescription” for kids and adults to boost cognition and mental health?

August 31, 2023  |

Wel­come to a new edi­tion of Sharp­Brains e‑newsletter, fea­tur­ing this time a range of brain research find­ings, tools and con­tro­ver­sies plus some brain teasers to chal­lenge your (and our) work­ing mem­o­ry. #1. Major evi­dence review sup­ports an “exer­cise pre­scrip­tion” for most adults to boost men­tal health “High­er inten­si­ty phys­i­cal activ­i­ty was asso­ci­at­ed with greater improvements”…

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Evidence review: Physical exercise helps boost attention, cognitive flexibility and inhibitory control in children and adolescents with ADHD

August 23, 2023  |

The impact of phys­i­cal exer­cise on ADHD has been exam­ined in a large num­ber of stud­ies. Col­lec­tive­ly, these stud­ies have exam­ined whether exer­cise reduces on core ADHD symp­toms, e.g., inat­ten­tion and hyperactivity/impulsivity, and strength­ens exec­u­tive func­tions, e.g., inhibito­ry con­trol, work­ing mem­o­ry, and men­tal health, e.g., emo­tion­al and social func­tion­ing. Over­all, results across mul­ti­ple stud­ies suggest…

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Hopes and Questions raised by Alzheimer’s drug Leqembi (lecanemab)

August 17, 2023  | Com­ments Off on Hopes and Ques­tions raised by Alzheimer’s drug Leqem­bi (lecanemab)

The FDA has approved Leqem­bi, the first dis­­­ease-mod­­­i­­­fy­ing treat­ment for ear­­­ly-stage Alzheimer’s and a pre­cur­sor con­di­tion, mild cog­ni­tive impair­ment. Medicare has said it will pay for the ther­a­py. Med­ical cen­ters across the coun­try are scram­bling to final­ize poli­cies and pro­ce­dures for pro­vid­ing the med­ica­tion to patients, pos­si­bly by summer’s end or ear­ly autumn. It’s a…

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Neurotech, neuroethics and brain data in context: Are “neurorights” the way to mental privacy?

August 10, 2023  | Com­ments Off on Neu­rotech, neu­roethics and brain data in con­text: Are “neu­ror­ights” the way to men­tal privacy?

Neu­rotech­nolo­gies – devices that inter­act direct­ly with the brain or ner­vous sys­tem – were once dis­missed as the stuff of sci­ence fic­tion. Not any­more. Sev­er­al com­pa­nies are try­ing to devel­op brain-com­put­er inter­faces, or BCIs, in hopes of help­ing patients with severe paral­y­sis or oth­er neu­ro­log­i­cal dis­or­ders. Entre­pre­neur Elon Musk’s com­pa­ny Neu­ralink, for exam­ple, recent­ly received…

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Price tag for a questionable Alzheimer’s treatment: $109,000 per patient, per year. Unclear yet: For how many years?

August 2, 2023  | Com­ments Off on Price tag for a ques­tion­able Alzheimer’s treat­ment: $109,000 per patient, per year. Unclear yet: For how many years?

The real costs of the new Alzheimer’s drug, Leqem­bi — and why tax­pay­ers will foot much of the bill (CBS News): The first drug pur­port­ing to slow the advance of Alzheimer’s dis­ease is like­ly to cost the U.S. health care sys­tem bil­lions annu­al­ly even as it remains out of reach for many of the low­er-income seniors…

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Just-published Apple patent signals aim to measure brain activity using AirPods sensor system

July 26, 2023  | Com­ments Off on Just-pub­lished Apple patent sig­nals aim to mea­sure brain activ­i­ty using Air­Pods sen­sor system

Apple Invents a next-gen­er­a­­­tion Air­Pods Sen­sor Sys­tem that could mea­sure Biosig­nals and Elec­tri­cal Activ­i­ty of a User’s brain (Patent­ly Apple): Today the US Patent & Trade­mark Office pub­lished a patent appli­ca­tion from Apple that relates to a next-gen­er­a­­­tion of Air­Pods Sen­sor Sys­tem where­in the hous­ing and tips of Air­Pods could include a num­ber of active and…

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Reading for pleasure during childhood may lead to higher brain/ cognitive development and mental well-being during adolescence

July 19, 2023  |

Ear­ly child­hood is a crit­i­cal peri­od for brain devel­op­ment, which is impor­tant for boost­ing cog­ni­tion and men­tal well­be­ing. Good brain health at this age is direct­ly linked to bet­ter men­tal heath, cog­ni­tion and edu­ca­tion­al attain­ment in ado­les­cence and adult­hood. It can also pro­vide resilience in times of stress. But, sad­ly, brain devel­op­ment can be hampered…

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Virtual cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) accounts for over 30% of NHS mental health treatments — up from 10% in 2017

July 12, 2023  | Com­ments Off on Vir­tu­al cog­ni­tive behav­iour­al ther­a­py (CBT) accounts for over 30% of NHS men­tal health treat­ments — up from 10% in 2017

Con­cern as a third of NHS men­tal health treat­ments shift online (The Guardian): An Observ­er analy­sis of data from pri­vate providers, cross-checked against NHS fig­ures, reveals around one in three men­tal health treat­ments in Eng­land are deliv­ered online, up from one in five in 2019, and one in 10 in 2017. Patients with mild to…

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About SharpBrains

SHARPBRAINS Advi­sors is an inde­pen­dent think-tank and con­sult­ing firm pro­vid­ing ser­vices at the fron­tier of applied neu­ro­science, health, lead­er­ship and innovation.
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SHARPBRAINS Advi­sors es un think-tank y con­sul­toría inde­pen­di­ente pro­por­cio­nan­do ser­vi­cios para la neu­ro­cien­cia apli­ca­da, salud, lid­er­az­go e innovación.
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