depression-treatment

Machine-learning study finds EEG brain signatures that predict response to antidepressant treatments

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Brain-wave pat­tern can iden­ti­fy peo­ple like­ly to respond to anti­de­pres­sant, study finds (Stan­ford Med­i­cine press release):

“A new method of inter­pret­ing brain activ­i­ty could poten­tial­ly be used in clin­ics to help deter­mine the best treat­ment options for depres­sion, accord­ing to a study led by researchers at the Stan­ford School of Medicine.

Stan­ford researchers and their col­lab­o­ra­tors used elec­troen­cephalog­ra­phy, a tool for mon­i­tor­ing elec­tri­cal activ­i­ty in the brain, and an algo­rithm to iden­ti­fy a brain-wave sig­na­ture in [Read more…] about Machine-learn­ing study finds EEG brain sig­na­tures that pre­dict response to anti­de­pres­sant treatments

Cognitive Training or Gingko Biloba to prevent cognitive decline and dementia? New comprehensive report by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine clarifies priorities for public health and for future research

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Evi­dence Sup­port­ing Three Inter­ven­tions That Might Slow Cog­ni­tive Decline and the Onset of Demen­tia Is Encour­ag­ing but Insuf­fi­cient to Jus­ti­fy a Pub­lic Health Cam­paign Focused on Their Adop­tion (Nation­al Acad­e­mies of Sci­ences, Engi­neer­ing, and Medicine):

“Cog­ni­tive train­ing, blood pres­sure man­age­ment for peo­ple with hyper­ten­sion, and increased phys­i­cal activ­i­ty all show mod­est but incon­clu­sive evi­dence that they can help pre­vent cog­ni­tive decline and demen­tia, but there is insuf­fi­cient evi­dence to sup­port a pub­lic health cam­paign encour­ag­ing their adop­tion, says a new report from the Nation­al Acad­e­mies of Sci­ences, Engi­neer­ing, and Med­i­cine. Addi­tion­al research is need­ed to fur­ther under­stand and gain con­fi­dence in their effec­tive­ness, said the com­mit­tee that con­duct­ed the study and wrote the report [Read more…] about Cog­ni­tive Train­ing or Gingko Bilo­ba to pre­vent cog­ni­tive decline and demen­tia? New com­pre­hen­sive report by the Nation­al Acad­e­mies of Sci­ences, Engi­neer­ing, and Med­i­cine clar­i­fies pri­or­i­ties for pub­lic health and for future research

Study: Cognitive Behavioral Therapy helps treat depression–especially among women–but benefits are declining steadily

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CBT

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Researchers have found that CBT is rough­ly half as effec­tive in treat­ing depres­sion as it used to be (The Guardian):

“Every­body loves cog­ni­tive behav­iour­al ther­a­py. It’s the no-non­sense, quick and rel­a­tive­ly cheap approach to men­tal suffering…So it was unset­tling to learn, from a paper in the jour­nal Psy­cho­log­i­cal Bul­letin, that it seems to be get­ting less effec­tive over time. [Read more…] about Study: Cog­ni­tive Behav­ioral Ther­a­py helps treat depression–especially among women–but ben­e­fits are declin­ing steadily

Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS) as depression treatment: much promise, some DIY risks

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For people with severe depression, incorrect application can worsen their condition or cause memory loss. Nathan O'Nions/Flickr, CC BY-NC
—For peo­ple with severe depres­sion, incor­rect appli­ca­tion can wors­en their con­di­tion or cause mem­o­ry loss. Nathan O’Nions/Flickr, CC BY-NC

Around 350 mil­lion peo­ple world­wide have depres­sion. Anti­de­pres­sant med­ica­tions are often pre­scribed to treat the con­di­tion, along­side talk­ing ther­a­pies and lifestyle changes such as reg­u­lar exercise.

But a sub­stan­tial pro­por­tion of peo­ple either don’t respond to anti­de­pres­sants, or expe­ri­ence such sig­nif­i­cant side effects that they’d pre­fer not to take them.

In search of [Read more…] about Tran­scra­nial Direct Cur­rent Stim­u­la­tion (tDCS) as depres­sion treat­ment: much promise, some DIY risks

Training our brains’ executive control to reduce rumination and improve mood

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happybrainIsraeli com­put­er ‘game’ teach­es brain to be hap­pi­er (Haaretz):

“There are peo­ple who think dwelling on their emo­tions is help­ful, view­ing it as a kind of wrestling match with their inner demons. But accord­ing to psy­chol­o­gists, it’s [Read more…] about Train­ing our brains’ exec­u­tive con­trol to reduce rumi­na­tion and improve mood

10 Predictions on How Digital Platforms will Transform Brain Health in 2013

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Just a quick note: we’ll host a webi­nar on Jan­u­ary 30th to dis­cuss key mar­ket pre­dic­tions based on “The Dig­i­tal Brain Health Mar­ket 2012–2020: Web-based, mobile and bio­met­rics-based tech­nol­ogy to assess, mon­i­tor and enhance cog­ni­tion and brain func­tion­ing”, our new mar­ket report.

Here are 10 pre­dic­tions, many of which will like­ly be real­ized before the end of 2013: [Read more…] about 10 Pre­dic­tions on How Dig­i­tal Plat­forms will Trans­form Brain Health in 2013