FDA grants break­through device des­ig­na­tion to Neu­raMetrix (press release):

“The U.S. Food and Drug Admin­is­tra­tion (FDA) has grant­ed Break­through Device des­ig­na­tion to the Neu­raMetrix brain health mon­i­tor­ing solu­tion. The des­ig­na­tion is grant­ed for devices “that pro­vide more effec­tive treat­ment or diag­no­sis of life-threat­en­ing or irre­versibly debil­i­tat­ing human dis­ease or con­di­tions”. The approved use is mon­i­tor­ing of Parkinson’s dis­ease (PD) Read the rest of this entry »

The glob­al men­tal health cri­sis could cost the world $16 tril­lion by 2030. With men­tal dis­or­ders on the rise in every coun­try in the world, nowhere is immune.

Poor men­tal health stops employ­ees from reach­ing their full poten­tial and forces them to take more sick days, stunt­ing pro­duc­tiv­i­ty and eco­nom­ic growth. This is also a chal­lenge with soci­ety-wide ram­i­fi­ca­tions. Lone­li­ness and iso­la­tion affect many of the most vul­ner­a­ble among us. Peo­ple with seri­ous con­di­tions such as schiz­o­phre­nia or bipo­lar dis­or­der are espe­cial­ly like­ly to be mar­gin­alised by their com­mu­ni­ties. Those with the most severe con­di­tions pay with their lives, dying pre­ma­ture­ly – as much as two decades before their time.

For­tu­nate­ly, com­ing into Davos this year we are rid­ing a sea change in how the world approach­es men­tal health.

–> Keep read­ing Why this is the year we must take action on men­tal health over at the World Eco­nom­ic Forum blog.

Article in context:

• Five rea­sons the future of brain enhance­ment is dig­i­tal, per­va­sive and (hope­ful­ly) bright
  
• Mind­strong Health iden­ti­fies dig­i­tal bio­mark­ers of cog­ni­tive func­tion using smart­phone data
  
• Learn more and dis­cuss at the 2019 Sharp­Brains Vir­tu­al Sum­mit: The Future of Brain Health (Feb­ru­ary 26–28th)
  
• Pre­sen­ta­tion by Dr. Tom Insel at the 2017 Sharp­Brains Vir­tu­al Sum­mit:

Otsu­ka, Click Ther­a­peu­tics part­ner to cre­ate ther­a­py for men­tal ill­ness (Ver­dict Med­ical Devices):

“Otsu­ka Pharmaceutical’s US divi­sion Otsu­ka Amer­i­ca has part­nered with Click Ther­a­peu­tics to devel­op and com­mer­cialise a pre­scrip­tion dig­i­tal ther­a­peu­tic for treat­ing major depres­sive dis­or­der (MDD) Read the rest of this entry »

Aer­o­bic Exer­cise May Be Key to Bet­ter Neu­rocog­ni­tion (Psy­chol­o­gy Today):

“Duke Uni­ver­si­ty researchers recent­ly report­ed that just six months of aer­o­bic exercise—for 35 min­utes, three times a week—may improve exec­u­tive func­tion in old­er adults who have cog­ni­tive impair­ments. Before they began doing aer­o­bic exer­cise, the pre­vi­ous­ly seden­tary study par­tic­i­pants had dif­fi­cul­ty con­cen­trat­ing, mak­ing deci­sions, and remem­ber­ing Read the rest of this entry »