Update: Dementia rates in the UK significantly lower than forecasted, highlighting the protective role of lifestyle and education

By SharpBrains | April 27, 2016

    Time for a new edi­tion of Sharp­Brains’ eNewslet­ter, full of fas­ci­nat­ing brain stud­ies and emerg­ing think­ing and tools for life­long men­tal health and per­for­mance. Hap­py read­ing! New research: Demen­tia rates in the UK sig­nif­i­cant­ly low­er than forecasted–especially for men–highlighting the pro­tec­tive role of lifestyle and edu­ca­tion Sys­tem­at­ic evi­dence review finds cog­ni­tive behav­ioral ther­a­py as effective…

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Systematic evidence review finds cognitive behavioral therapy as effective as antidepressant medicines in treating depression

By SharpBrains | April 4, 2016 |

Depres­sion: Treat­ment Beyond Med­ica­tion (The Dana Foun­da­tion): “Major depres­sive dis­or­der affects near­ly 7 per­cent of peo­ple in the US aged 18 and up, accord­ing to the Depres­sion and Bipo­lar Sup­port Alliance. Those who seek treat­ment will most like­ly be pre­scribed a sec­ond-gen­er­a­­tion anti­de­pres­sant med­ica­tion such as a selec­tive sero­tonin reup­take inhibitor (SSRI), tri­cyclic anti­de­pres­sant (TCA),…

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Time is over for “one size fits all” dementia treatments. Next: How to best integrate non-pharmacologic and pharmacologic approaches

By SharpBrains | March 10, 2015

. Time to ‘just say no’ to behav­ior-calm­ing drugs for Alzheimer patients? Experts say yes (Med­ical Xpress): “Doc­tors write mil­lions of pre­scrip­tions a year for drugs to calm the behav­ior of peo­ple with Alzheimer’s dis­ease and oth­er types of demen­tia. But non-drug approach­es actu­al­ly work bet­ter, and car­ry far few­er risks, experts con­clude in a…

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Smart pills as cognitive enhancement? Let’s first monitor negative cognitive side-effects of common medications

By SharpBrains | November 8, 2012

Mem­o­ry Loss Could Be The Fault Of Your Meds, Not Your Age (Inter­na­tion­al Busi­ness Times): “Mem­o­ry loss isn’t always an inevitable sign of get­ting old – in some cas­es, com­mon med­ica­tions that seniors take to treat insom­nia, anx­i­ety, or even aller­gies could be to blame…Tannenbaum and her col­leagues recent­ly inves­ti­gat­ed what kinds of med­ica­tion are most…

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Update: New brain science leads to new tools and to new thinking

By SharpBrains | October 31, 2012

We often view mem­o­ry, think­ing, emo­tions, as com­plete­ly sep­a­rate enti­ties, but they tru­ly are part of the same process. So, if we want to improve brain health, we need to pay atten­tion to the “weak link” in that process. In today’s soci­ety, man­ag­ing stress and neg­a­tive emo­tions is often that weak link, as we discuss…

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