Tracking Health and Wellness Applications of Brain Science

digital therapeutics

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

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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 and King’s Col­lege Lon­don, stress, anx­i­ety and depres­sion were all sig­nif­i­cant­ly high­er in par­tic­i­pants com­pared with ‘pop­u­la­tion norms’, with 64% of the par­tic­i­pants report­ing symp­toms of depres­sion and 57% report­ing symp­toms of anx­i­ety. [Read more…] about The land­scape of dig­i­tal men­tal health apps: huge unmet needs, qual­i­ty con­cerns, app stores asked to ensure transparency

Neurostimulation device GammaSense by Cognito Therapeutics secures FDA Breakthrough Device Designation to explore Alzheimer’s Disease applications

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Cred­it: The Picow­er Insti­tute @ MIT

Cog­ni­to Ther­a­peu­tics nets FDA break­through label for light, sound ther­a­py for Alzheimer’s dis­ease (Fierce Biotech):

Using spe­cif­ic fre­quen­cies of flash­ing lights and sounds to stim­u­late the brain’s elec­tri­cal activ­i­ty, Cog­ni­to Ther­a­peu­tics believes it can help treat Alzheimer’s dis­ease by ener­giz­ing neu­rons and reac­ti­vat­ing the immune system.

[Read more…] about Neu­rostim­u­la­tion device Gam­maSense by Cog­ni­to Ther­a­peu­tics secures FDA Break­through Device Des­ig­na­tion to explore Alzheimer’s Dis­ease applications

Update: Understanding Brain Health via Cosmological Health, and vice versa

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LEFT: SECTION OF CEREBELLUM, WITH MAGNIFICATION FACTOR 40X, OBTAINED WITH ELECTRON MICROSCOPY (DR. E. ZUNARELLI, UNIVERSITY HOSPITAL OF MODENA); RIGHT: SECTION OF A COSMOLOGICAL SIMULATION, WITH AN EXTENSION OF 300 MILLION LIGHT-YEARS ON EACH SIDE (VAZZA ET AL. 2019 A&A). CREDIT: UNIVERSITY OF BOLOGNA

Wel­come to a new edi­tion of Sharp­Brains’ e‑newsletter, fea­tur­ing fas­ci­nat­ing find­ings, books and resources for life­long brain health.

#1. “The human brain (sec­tion; left image above) func­tions thanks to its wide neu­ronal net­work that is deemed to con­tain approx­i­mate­ly 69 bil­lion neu­rons. On the oth­er hand, the observ­able uni­verse (sec­tion sim­u­la­tion; right image) can count upon a cos­mic web of at least 100 bil­lion galax­ies. With­in both sys­tems, only 30% of their mass­es are com­posed of galax­ies and neu­rons. With­in both sys­tems, galax­ies and neu­rons arrange them­selves in long fil­a­ments or nodes between the fil­a­ments. Final­ly, with­in both sys­tems, 70% of the dis­tri­b­u­tion of mass or ener­gy is com­posed of com­po­nents play­ing an appar­ent­ly pas­sive role: water in the brain and dark ener­gy in the observ­able Uni­verse.” Under­stand­ing Brain Health via Cos­mo­log­i­cal Health, and vice versa

#2. One very smart and gen­er­ous brain to bright­en your day: Indi­an teacher Ran­jitsinh Disale wins annu­al $1M Glob­al Teacher Prize; shares half with 9 finalists

#3. “Of all the qual­i­ties par­ents can cul­ti­vate in their chil­dren, hope and opti­mism are the most pre­cious. We can nur­ture hope and opti­mism in our kids by demon­strat­ing that we always have some con­trol over our envi­ron­ment and our­selves. The future isn’t a tide that’s going to crush us, it’s a wave we’re a part of.” — Made­line Levine, author of Ready or Not. Three favorite 2020 books on par­ent­ing and men­tal health

#4. A superb mem­oir on becom­ing a psy­chother­a­py pio­neer and best­selling writer: Becom­ing Myself, by Irvin D. Yalom

#5. This sur­vey of 2500 fam­i­lies about what ADHD treat­ments seem to work/ not work finds that 49% of par­ents report Exer­cise to be ‘Extreme­ly or Very Effec­tive;’ above any oth­er treatment.

#6. On the dan­gers of “pro­duc­tiz­ing” lifestyle guide­lines that help build brain reserve and delay cog­ni­tive prob­lems; Buy­er beware: The sto­ry of a pricey and “cre­den­tialled” pro­gram to end Alzheimer’s Disease

#7. Now, giv­en that “In a new McK­in­sey report, 62% of employ­ees con­sid­er men­tal health issues a top chal­lenge,” it is good to see grow­ing resources and approach­es aimed at address­ing the chal­lenge: Calm rais­es $75 mil­lion, expands into cor­po­rate men­tal health and wellness

#8. And, step by step, dig­i­tal ther­a­peu­tics are going main­stream: Click Ther­a­peu­tics rais­es $30 mil­lion in debt to advance com­mer­cial­iza­tion of smok­ing ces­sa­tion app Clickotine

#9. Nev­er two with­out three: Pear Ther­a­peu­tics rais­es $80M; finds cost sav­ings of $2,150 per patient with opi­oid use disorder

#10. Final­ly, we asked our team and trust­ed advi­sors to com­pile a list of ideas to stay sane and healthy in the months ahead, pri­or­i­tiz­ing habits shown to pro­mote brain health, resilience and pos­i­tive neu­ro­plas­tic­i­ty: Enjoy these 3 New Year Res­o­lu­tions and 36 Ideas for a Hap­pi­er & Health­i­er 2021

Wish­ing you a safe, healthy and hap­py New Year

Pear Therapeutics raises $80M; finds cost savings of $2,150 per patient with opioid use disorder

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Pear Ther­a­peu­tics rais­es $80M in push for reim­burse­ment (Med­C­i­ty News):

Pear Ther­a­peu­tics raised $80 mil­lion in fund­ing, which it plans to use as part of a push for cov­er­age of its dig­i­tal ther­a­peu­tics. The Boston-based com­pa­ny has three FDA-cleared prod­ucts, includ­ing dig­i­tal ther­a­peu­tics for sub­stance use dis­or­der, opi­oid use dis­or­der, and most recent­ly, insom­nia. [Read more…] about Pear Ther­a­peu­tics rais­es $80M; finds cost sav­ings of $2,150 per patient with opi­oid use disorder

Click Therapeutics raises $30 million in debt to advance commercialization of smoking cessation app Clickotine

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Click Ther­a­peu­tics Secures $30M in Growth Cap­i­tal from K2 HealthVen­tures to Expand Oper­a­tions (press release):

Click Ther­a­peu­tics, Inc. (“Click”), a leader in Dig­i­tal Ther­a­peu­tics™ solu­tions as pre­scrip­tion med­ical treat­ments, today announced $30 mil­lion in debt financ­ing from K2 HealthVen­tures (K2HV), a health­care-focused spe­cial­ty finance com­pa­ny, to accel­er­ate com­mer­cial­iza­tion of its lead­ing smok­ing ces­sa­tion solu­tion, Click­o­tine™, and to advance its pipeline of clin­i­cal­ly-val­i­dat­ed dig­i­tal ther­a­peu­tics [Read more…] about Click Ther­a­peu­tics rais­es $30 mil­lion in debt to advance com­mer­cial­iza­tion of smok­ing ces­sa­tion app Clickotine

FDA clears first videogame to be prescribed to kids with ADHD: EndeavorRx by Akili Interactive Labs

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Screen­shot of EndeavorRx

In a land­mark deci­sion, FDA green­lights a video game for kids with ADHD (STAT):

The Food and Drug Admin­is­tra­tion on Mon­day for the first time gave a green light to a game-based ther­a­peu­tic: a video game meant to be pre­scribed to kids with ADHD.

The game, known as Endeav­or­Rx and devel­oped by Boston-based Akili Inter­ac­tive Labs, can now be mar­ket­ed as a way to improve atten­tion func­tion in kids with ADHD as mea­sured by com­put­er­ized test­ing. Physi­cians can pre­scribe it to chil­dren between the ages of 8 and 12 who have an ADHD diag­no­sis and have demon­strat­ed an issue with attention.

The FDA’s move is a land­mark deci­sion in the emerg­ing dig­i­tal ther­a­peu­tics sec­tor: In addi­tion to being the first game to be mar­ket­ed as a ther­a­py for any type of con­di­tion, Endeav­or­Rx is the first dig­i­tal ther­a­peu­tic meant to improve symp­toms asso­ci­at­ed with ADHD, the FDA’s announce­ment said…The game was born in the Uni­ver­si­ty of Cal­i­for­nia, San Fran­cis­co lab of neu­ro­sci­en­tist Adam Gaz­za­ley, and was licensed out by Akili, which pol­ished and test­ed the game in clin­i­cal tri­als. Akili spent the past two years wait­ing on a reg­u­la­to­ry deci­sion from the FDA.

[Read more…] about FDA clears first videogame to be pre­scribed to kids with ADHD: Endeav­or­Rx by Akili Inter­ac­tive Labs