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adhd

From “Eminence-based” to Evidence-based cognitive & mental healthcare: Time for quality and accountability

March 31, 2022 by SharpBrains

Wel­come to a new edi­tion of Sharp­Brains’ e‑newsletter, fea­tur­ing time­ly brain & men­tal health news, two excel­lent new books and a few fun brain teasers.

#1. From “Emi­nence-based” to Evi­dence-based men­tal health­care: Time to focus on qual­i­ty and accountability

“The real chal­lenge is not find­ing a ther­a­pist, it’s find­ing a ther­a­pist who knows how to pro­vide the treat­ments that work. In the ear­ly 2000s, Myr­na Weiss­man was try­ing to under­stand why so few ther­a­pists use sci­en­tif­i­cal­ly based treat­ments. She found that over 60 per­cent of pro­fes­sion­al schools of psy­chol­o­gy and master’s lev­el social work pro­grams did not include any super­vised train­ing for any sci­en­tif­i­cal­ly based ther­a­py … In con­trast to evi­dence-based care, I call this “emi­nence-based care.” — Dr. Thomas Insel in his excel­lent new book

#2. Anoth­er great new book to cel­e­brate Brain Aware­ness Week 2022

“Spain played a unique role in Cajal’s discoveries—that is, in the pro­gres­sion of neu­ro­science. The coun­try was not a hotbed of sci­en­tif­ic research. Lack­ing men­tors, Cajal near­ly aban­doned his efforts. But work­ing inde­pen­dent­ly may have forged his auton­o­my and freed him from the influ­ence of tra­di­tion­al the­o­ries. He also longed to dis­prove the stereo­types about Spain. “One could admit that Spain pro­duces some genius artist, such as a long-haired poet or ges­tic­u­lat­ing dancer of either sex,” Cajal lat­er wrote, “but the idea that a true man of sci­ence would emerge from there was con­sid­ered absurd.” — Fas­ci­nat­ing insights into the “father of mod­ern neuroscience”

#3. UT-Dal­las Brain­Health presents vir­tu­al talks with Alvaro Fer­nan­dez and San­jay Gup­ta next month (April 21th and 26th; both 8:00 – 9:00 PM EDT/ Mia­mi time)

We believe some of you may be interested 🙂

#4. Cana­di­an study finds causal link between time play­ing videogames at age 12 and ADHD symp­toms at age 13

“After con­trol­ling for sex, socioe­co­nom­ic sta­tus, and ADHD symp­toms at age 12, the week­ly amount video game play report­ed at age 12 pre­dict­ed high­er lev­els of self-report­ed ADHD symp­toms at age 13 … The mag­ni­tude of the effect was not large, but it was sta­tis­ti­cal­ly sig­nif­i­cant. In con­trast, high­er lev­els of ADHD symp­toms at age 12 did not pre­dict an increase in video game play one year later.”

#5. From for­est bathing to urban parks: How nature helps pro­tect our well-being dur­ing a pandemic

“Whether we gar­den, have a view of nature out our win­dow, vis­it near­by parks, or even just watch a nature video, we can help our­selves deal with the stress­es and strains of COVID iso­la­tion by giv­ing our­selves and our kids a dose of “Vit­a­min N.”

#6. A con­ver­sa­tion at the fron­tier of dig­i­tal health inno­va­tion, FDA reg­u­la­tions, and cog­ni­tive health

Good to see rec­og­nized the need for “reim­burse­ment inno­va­tion” for emerg­ing dig­i­tal bio­mark­ers & ther­a­peu­tics — the FDA does have both sticks and car­rots to leverage

#7. New DARPA ini­tia­tive aims to har­ness cog­ni­tive sci­ence, sen­sors and machine learn­ing to detect ear­ly brain signs of depres­sion, anx­i­ety, and sui­ci­dal ideation

“NEAT is a proof-of-con­cept effort attempt­ing to devel­op a new tool for men­tal and behav­ioral health screen­ing that moves us beyond his­tor­i­cal and cur­rent meth­ods of ques­tions and con­scious­ly fil­tered respons­es … If suc­cess­ful, NEAT will not only sig­nif­i­cant­ly aug­ment behav­ioral health screen­ing, but it could also serve as a new way to assess ulti­mate treat­ment effi­ca­cy, since patients will often tell their clin­i­cians what they think the clin­i­cian wants to hear rather than how they are tru­ly feel­ing.” — Greg Witkop, pro­gram man­ag­er in DARPA’s Defense Sci­ences Office

#8. Sep­a­rat­ing brain-healthy wheat from chaff is becom­ing more urgent by the day

Would you trust claims in A or B or neither?

Final­ly, here’s a selec­tion of fun brain teasers that read­ers have enjoyed the most this year so far:

#9. Where’s the baby?

#10. Can you con­nect these pairs of words?

#11. Want to test your stress level?

#12. Which way is the bus head­ing?

 

Wish­ing you and yours a healthy and stim­u­lat­ing April … and let’s get some Vit­a­min N (and D) this weekend!

The Sharp­Brains Team

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Filed Under: Brain/ Mental Health, Education & Lifelong Learning, SharpBrains Monthly eNewsletter, Technology & Innovation Tagged With: adhd, ADHD-symptoms, alvaro-fernandez, behavioral health screening, Brain Teasers, BrainHealth, Cajal, cognitive-abilities, DARPA, digital biomarkers, digital therapeutics, FDA, fun brain teasers, mental health screening, mental healthcare, NEAT, neuroscience, playing videogames, Sanjay Gupta, Spain, stimulating brain teasers, therapist, UT-Dallas

Separating brain-healthy wheat from chaff is becoming more urgent by the day

March 21, 2022 by SharpBrains

A) New video game com­pa­ny aims to devel­op ther­a­peu­tic games (The Verge):

Video game-based tools can help with con­di­tions like depres­sion and ADHD, research shows. Deep­Well Dig­i­tal Ther­a­peu­tics plans to build on those stud­ies. “There was an amaz­ing amount of sci­ence that had already been done,” Dou­glas says. “We start­ed to rec­og­nize exact­ly how ther­a­peu­tic these games already were.” [Read more…] about Sep­a­rat­ing brain-healthy wheat from chaff is becom­ing more urgent by the day

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Filed Under: Technology & Innovation Tagged With: adhd, Bayer, DeepWell, depression, digital therapeutics, Woebot Health

Canadian study finds causal link between time playing videogames at age 12 and ADHD symptoms at age 13

March 7, 2022 by Dr. David Rabiner

Recent stud­ies have linked screen time — includ­ing video game play — to con­cern­ing out­comes in chil­dren, includ­ing low self-esteem, low life sat­is­fac­tion, and depres­sive symp­toms. Screen time has also been found to be cor­re­lat­ed with symp­toms of ADHD in chil­dren and ado­les­cents, even when ear­li­er atten­tion dif­fi­cul­ties are tak­en into account.

These find­ings sug­gest that exces­sive video game play may be a risk fac­tor for the devel­op­ment of ADHD symp­toms. Oth­er research sug­gests the pos­si­bil­i­ty of reverse cau­sa­tion, i.e., that ADHD symp­toms pre­dicts the devel­op­ment of exces­sive video game play. [Read more…] about Cana­di­an study finds causal link between time play­ing videogames at age 12 and ADHD symp­toms at age 13

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Filed Under: Brain/ Mental Health, Education & Lifelong Learning, Technology & Innovation Tagged With: adhd, ADHD-symptoms, adolescence, screen time, screens, video-games, videogames

Digital therapeutics pioneer Akili Interactive plans to go public in mid-2022 at a $1B valuation

January 26, 2022 by SharpBrains

Pal­i­hapi­tiya-Led SPAC to Merge With Akili in $1 Bil­lion Deal (Bloomberg):

Akili Inter­ac­tive, a start­up that has devel­oped a video game to help treat atten­tion-deficit dis­or­ders in kids, has agreed to go pub­lic through a merg­er with one of Chamath Palihapitiya’s blank-check companies.

The deal, which con­firms a Bloomberg News report, val­ues the com­bined enti­ty at about $1 bil­lion, Akili and Social Cap­i­tal Suvret­ta Hold­ings Corp. I said in a state­ment seen by Bloomberg. It will pro­vide as much as $412 mil­lion in gross cash pro­ceeds, the com­pa­nies said. [Read more…] about Dig­i­tal ther­a­peu­tics pio­neer Akili Inter­ac­tive plans to go pub­lic in mid-2022 at a $1B valuation

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Filed Under: Attention & ADD/ADHD, Brain/ Mental Health, Technology & Innovation Tagged With: adhd, Akili Interactive, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, Chamath Palihapitiya, cognitive-impairments, digital therapeutics, EndeavorRx, FDA, neuropsychiatric, neuropsychiatric treatment, Social Capital Suvretta Holdings, treatment, video-game

Welcome to the Ultimate Neuroscience Lab: Your Smartphone

September 30, 2021 by SharpBrains

Wel­come to a new edi­tion of Sharp­Brains’ e‑newsletter, fea­tur­ing this time six sci­en­tif­ic reports and indus­try resources plus a fun illusion.

#1. Top 10 Men­tal Health Inno­va­tions to Watch: Spe­cial SciAm/ WEF report

Hop­ing you enjoy the great series over at Sci­en­tif­ic Amer­i­can and espe­cial­ly #7, titled Wel­come to the Ulti­mate Neu­ro­science Lab: Your Smart­phone, by Emory neu­roethi­cist Karen Rom­melfanger and our very own Álvaro Fer­nán­dez Ibáñez.

#2. Five thoughts to think about when think­ing about the speed of thought

The time it takes for all thoughts to occur is ulti­mate­ly shaped by the char­ac­ter­is­tics of the neu­rons and the net­works involved. Many things influ­ence the speed at which infor­ma­tion flows through the sys­tem, but three key fac­tors are: dis­tance, myeli­na­tion, complexity,

#3. Study: Self-guid­ed sleep app Sleepio, com­bined with stan­dard care for depres­sion and anx­i­ety, deliv­ers bet­ter out­comes than stan­dard care alone

“This eval­u­a­tion revealed sig­nif­i­cant val­ue in intro­duc­ing an evi­dence-based dig­i­tal sleep inter­ven­tion at scale with­in a clin­i­cal men­tal health ser­vice,” researchers from Big Health and Oxford Health NHS Foun­da­tion Trust conclude.

#4. On uncer­tain­ty, stress, emo­tion reg­u­la­tion, and carpe diem

“These find­ings from three stud­ies with diverse sam­ples and method­olo­gies under­score an upside to the specter of uncer­tain­ty: it can cause peo­ple to savor the pos­i­tives of the present.”

#5. Study finds ADHD is asso­ci­at­ed with dementia

“Specif­i­cal­ly, par­ents of an ADHD child have a 34% high­er risk of demen­tia and 55% high­er risk of Alzheimer’s, the results showed. Grand­par­ents have about an 11% increased risk of either condition.”

#6. Study: Few­er than 1% of geri­atric patients with cog­ni­tive com­plaints met Aduhelm research tri­al cri­te­ria. What can we expect about its real-world safety?

As the researchers point out, “It is thus clear how the result­ing gap between the research and “real world” fields is mas­sive.” We do have the impres­sion that the Aduhelm FDA saga is far from over.

#7. Quick brain teas­er: What do you see? And, can you unsee it?

Have a minute? Give it a try 🙂

 

Wish­ing you and yours a hap­py and healthy month of October,

The Sharp­Brains Team

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Filed Under: Brain/ Mental Health, Technology & Innovation Tagged With: adhd, Aduhelm, brain-teaser, cognitive, cognitive complaints, dementia, emotion regulation, lifelong mental health, lifelong-brain-health, myelination, Neurons, neuroscience lab, quick brain teaser, Sleepio, smartphone

Study finds ADHD is associated with dementia

September 16, 2021 by SharpBrains

Multi­gen­er­a­tional Study Finds Links Between ADHD, Demen­tia Risk (Health Day):

Atten­tion-deficit/hy­per­ac­tiv­i­ty dis­or­der (ADHD) appears to be some­how linked to risk of demen­tia and Alzheimer’s dis­ease, a new multi­gen­er­a­tional study has found.

Par­ents and grand­par­ents of peo­ple with ADHD have a high­er risk of Alzheimer’s and demen­tia than peo­ple with no ADHD in their fam­i­ly, Swedish researchers said.

Specif­i­cal­ly, par­ents of an ADHD child have a 34% high­er risk of demen­tia and 55% high­er risk of Alzheimer’s, the results showed. Grand­par­ents have about an 11% increased risk of either con­di­tion. [Read more…] about Study finds ADHD is asso­ci­at­ed with dementia

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Filed Under: Attention & ADD/ADHD, Brain/ Mental Health Tagged With: adhd, Alzheimers-disease, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, cognitive, cognitive decline, cognitive-abilities, dementia, neurodegenerative-diseases, Neurodevelopmental

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