Systematic review finds more clinical harm than benefits in Alzheimer’s “treatments” lecanemab, aducanumab, and donanemab

Study ques­tions ben­e­fit of new Alzheimer’s drug (UGA Today): Last sum­mer, the U.S. Food and Drug Admin­is­tra­tion ful­ly approved the first drug shown to slow the progress of Alzheimer’s. But new research from the Uni­ver­si­ty of Geor­gia sug­gests that patients and care­givers may not expe­ri­ence any ben­e­fit from the drug in their dai­ly lives. The drug, Leqembi,…

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CMS: anti-amyloid drug Leqembi (lecanemab) doesn’t meet the “reasonable and necessary” standard required for wider Medicare coverage

CMS Sticks to Sharply Lim­it­ed Cov­er­age of New Alzheimer’s Drug, Leqem­bi (Man­aged Health­care Exec­u­tive): For now, CMS (Note: Cen­ters for Medicare & Med­ic­aid Ser­vices) is stick­ing to the cov­er­age deci­sion it made for Aduhelm (adu­canum­ab) and apply­ing it Leqem­bi (lecanemab). The deci­sion lim­its Medicare cov­er­age of the two Alzheimer disease’s drugs to Medicare ben­e­fi­cia­ries who…

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Could I be wrong? Exploring cognitive bias, curiosity, intellectual humility, and lifelong learning

Wel­come to a new edi­tion of Sharp­Brains’ e‑newsletter, fea­tur­ing eight time­ly sci­en­tif­ic and indus­try news plus a few fun teasers to appre­ci­ate our unique human brains. #1. Could I be wrong? Explor­ing research on cog­ni­tive bias, curios­i­ty, intel­lec­tu­al humil­i­ty, and life­long learn­ing “None of us thinks that our beliefs and atti­tudes are incor­rect; if we…

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Amyloid-related imaging abnormalities (ARIA) found in approximately 40% of patients taking “Alzheimer’s drug” Aduhelm

Study: Biogen’s Aduhelm Caused Brain Swelling in Over One-Third of Study Par­tic­i­pants (Bio­Space): Atten­tion is being focused on a side effect of Biogen’s Alzheimer’s drug, Aduhelm (adu­canum­ab). Even before its con­tro­ver­sial approval on June 7, there were cas­es of amy­loid-relat­ed imag­ing abnor­mal­i­ties (ARIA‑E), or cere­bral ede­ma, observed in the trials.

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On cognitive reframing and biases, stress, mental health tech, Aduhelm backlash, Britney Spears, and more

Wel­come to a new edi­tion of Sharp­Brains’ e‑newsletter, fea­tur­ing this time nine sci­en­tif­ic reports and indus­try devel­op­ments to help pro­mote life­long brain and men­tal health. #1. To low­er stress lev­els and improve prob­lem-solv­ing, prac­tice cog­ni­tive refram­ing instead of vent­ing “… vent­ing like­ly doesn’t soothe anger as much as aug­ment it. That’s because encour­ag­ing peo­ple to…

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Veterans Affairs won’t cover Biogen’s new “Alzheimer’s drug” given concerns over safety and lack of evidence

VA Health Sys­tem Won’t Cov­er Biogen’s Alzheimer’s Drug (The Wall Street Jour­nal): The Depart­ment of Vet­er­ans Affairs won’t cov­er Bio­gen Inc.’s new Alzheimer’s drug, the lat­est rebuke of the con­tro­ver­sial treat­ment since it was approved ear­li­er this sum­mer. The VA decid­ed not add the drug, called Aduhelm, to its for­mu­la­ry list of avail­able med­i­cines because…

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