Tracking Health and Wellness Applications of Brain Science

attention deficit hyperactivity disorder

Study shows promising results of EEG-based brain training in helping adults with ADHD

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Man­ag­ing atten­tion deficit dis­or­der by train­ing the brain (Sci­enceDai­ly):

Atten­tion Deficit Hyper­ac­tiv­i­ty Dis­or­der (ADHD) affects about 7% of chil­dren, with a two out of three chance of per­sist­ing into adult­hood. This neu­rode­vel­op­men­tal dis­or­der is char­ac­terised by con­cen­tra­tion dif­fi­cul­ties, increased dis­tractibil­i­ty, impul­siv­i­ty and hyper­ac­tiv­i­ty. Today, ADHD is treat­ed with phar­ma­ceu­ti­cal drugs that may have unwant­ed side effects. This is why sci­en­tists from the Uni­ver­si­ty of Gene­va (UNIGE) and the Uni­ver­si­ty Hos­pi­tals of Gene­va (HUG), Switzer­land, explored a new tech­nique called ‘neu­ro­feed­back’, which enables ADHD patients to train their atten­tion, based on instant feed­back from the lev­el of their brain activ­i­ty. [Read more…] about Study shows promis­ing results of EEG-based brain train­ing in help­ing adults with ADHD

Akili Interactive Labs raises $160M in equity and debt to transform cognitive healthcare via prescription videogame treatments

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Akili rais­es $110m to build its dig­i­tal ther­a­peu­tics pipeline (phar­mafo­rum):

Endeav­or­Rx became the first and so far only approved pre­scrip­tion video game treat­ment in the US when it was cleared by the FDA last year to treat atten­tion-deficit hyper­ac­tiv­i­ty dis­or­der (ADHD), and has also been giv­en a green light in Europe. [Read more…] about Akili Inter­ac­tive Labs rais­es $160M in equi­ty and debt to trans­form cog­ni­tive health­care via pre­scrip­tion videogame treatments

Large study with twins highlights the limited role of genetics in mental health and the importance of effective early interventions for ADHD

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Mul­ti­ple stud­ies have indi­cat­ed that, on aver­age, youth with ADHD have poor­er out­comes in young adult­hood in mul­ti­ple areas com­pared to their unaf­fect­ed peers.

A lim­i­ta­tion of these stud­ies, how­ev­er, is that they have not typ­i­cal­ly dis­tin­guished between indi­vid­u­als whose ADHD per­sists into adult­hood from those where the con­di­tion remits. [Read more…] about Large study with twins high­lights the lim­it­ed role of genet­ics in men­tal health and the impor­tance of effec­tive ear­ly inter­ven­tions for ADHD

Think twice before taking Aderall for cognitive enhancement: It may actually impair working memory and other cognitive abilities

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ADHD drugs do not improve cog­ni­tion in healthy col­lege stu­dents (Sci­enceDai­ly):

“Con­trary to pop­u­lar belief across col­lege cam­pus­es, atten­tion deficit hyper­ac­tiv­i­ty dis­or­der (ADHD) med­ica­tions may fail to improve cog­ni­tion in healthy stu­dents and actu­al­ly can impair func­tion­ing, accord­ing to a study by researchers at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Rhode Island and Brown Uni­ver­si­ty. [Read more…] about Think twice before tak­ing Ader­all for cog­ni­tive enhance­ment: It may actu­al­ly impair work­ing mem­o­ry and oth­er cog­ni­tive abilities

Brain training franchisor LearningRx settles FTC complaint about its marketing claims

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BrainTraining_learningRxLearn­ingRx To Pay $200K For Alleged­ly Unproven Claims That Brain Train­ing Can Improve Income, Treat Autism & ADHD (Con­sumerist):

“The com­pa­ny behind the Learn­ingRX “brain train­ing” pro­gram has agreed to pay a $200,000 set­tle­ment and to stop mak­ing claims that its sys­tem is clin­i­cal­ly proven to treat seri­ous health con­di­tions, or that it can [Read more…] about Brain train­ing fran­chisor Learn­ingRx set­tles FTC com­plaint about its mar­ket­ing claims

Large multi-center study to test videogame-like digital therapy as (potentially) FDA-cleared ADHD treatment

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evo_akiliAkili Labs recruits for ADHD tri­al with ambi­tions of FDA clear­ance for dig­i­tal med­i­cine (Med­C­i­ty News)

“Akili Labs has kicked off open enroll­ment for a clin­i­cal tri­al of its Project EVO video game plat­form in a quest to secure for 510(k) clear­ance from the U.S. Food and Drug Admin­is­tra­tion for its lead indi­ca­tion [Read more…] about Large mul­ti-cen­ter study to test videogame-like dig­i­tal ther­a­py as (poten­tial­ly) FDA-cleared ADHD treatment