Update on the aducanumab (Aduhelm) saga, retirement, financial advice, cognitive health, excessive worrying, neurotech, and more

Wel­come to a new edi­tion of Sharp­Brains’ e‑newsletter, pro­vid­ing this time a sum­ma­ry of the saga around the FDA approval of adu­canum­ab (Aduhelm) as a sup­posed treat­ment for Alzheimer’s Dis­ease, plus a range of time­ly research find­ings and resources for life­long brain health. First, below are some key reads to nav­i­gate “prob­a­bly the worst drug approval…

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Teladoc Health, having acquired Livongo and myStrength, launches integrated mental health service for the workplace

Teladoc builds out men­tal health­care ser­vices with myS­trength Com­plete (Mobi­Health­News): Vir­tu­al care giant Teladoc is build­ing out its behav­ioral health ser­vices through its lat­est pro­gram, myS­trength Com­plete. The new offer­ing is designed to give users a sin­gle inte­grat­ed men­tal health­care expe­ri­ence. It com­bines the app-based mod­els of care from myS­trength with Teladoc’s on-demand ther­a­pists and…

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Digital mental health start-up Koa Health raises €30M to accelerate growth in Europe and the US

Men­tal health­care start­up Koa Health clos­es €30M Series A fund­ing to expand its inter­na­tion­al foot­print (Sil­i­con Canals): In a recent devel­op­ment, Barcelona-based dig­i­tal men­tal health­care provider, Koa Health, has announced it closed an over­sub­scribed €30M Series A fund­ing round … The com­pa­ny had raised the funds back in Octo­ber 2020 and had also announced its spin-out…

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The landscape of digital mental health apps: huge unmet needs, quality concerns, app stores asked to ensure transparency

Address­ing the men­tal health cri­sis (Phar­ma Field): Each day we find out more about the men­tal health effects of the pan­dem­ic. Ear­ly on, the Office for Nation­al Sta­tis­tics found that one in five Britons report­ed symp­toms of depres­sion, com­pared with one in 10 before. And, accord­ing to a recent study led by the Uni­ver­si­ty of Nottingham…

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Startup Big Health raises $39M to universalize access to cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) for anxiety and poor sleep

Big Health Hones Dig­i­tal Men­tal Health Ther­a­py With $39M Series B (Crunch­base): “Start­up Big Health believes indi­vid­u­als can improve their men­tal health through its tech­nol­o­gy that focus­es on cog­ni­tive behav­ioral ther­a­py ver­sus med­ica­tion or the help of human ther­a­pists. On Thurs­day it raised $39 mil­lion in a Series B financ­ing to advance that objective.

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