Tracking Health and Wellness Applications of Brain Science

digital therapeutics

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

Update: Moderate lifetime drinking may lead to lower Alzheimer-related beta amyloid deposits in the brain

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Time for a new edi­tion of Sharp­Brains’ e‑newsletter.

#1. First of all, it’s not all bad news this month. Study finds that mod­er­ate life­time drink­ing may lead to low­er Alzheimer-relat­ed beta amy­loid deposits in the brain

#2. And, talk about per­son­al­ized med­i­cine! This fas­ci­nat­ing study show­ing how brain imag­ing (fMRI) + machine learn­ing + inten­sive, non-inva­sive neu­rostim­u­la­tion = tar­get­ed treat­ments that can max­i­mize effi­ca­cy and min­i­mize side effects: Rein­vent­ing depres­sion treat­ment via tran­scra­nial mag­net­ic brain stim­u­la­tion (TMS)

#3. Also, not a minute too soon … Med­i­ta­tion apps have gone main­stream in the covid-19 era and Dig­i­tal health start-ups raised a record $3.1 bil­lion in Q1; focus will like­ly evolve from providers to con­sumers and employ­ers

#4. Fyi, a very time­ly vir­tu­al event com­ing Tues­day April 28th, online: Explore strate­gies and tools to boost men­tal well­be­ing dur­ing (and after) Covid-19

#5. Now, “While Pear has an advan­tage over the com­pe­ti­tion in that its prod­ucts are backed by ran­dom­ized clin­i­cal tri­als, physi­cians and health plans are still work­ing out how to pre­scribe and pay for dig­i­tal ther­a­peu­tics.” The FDA clears Som­ryst, Pear’s dig­i­tal ther­a­peu­tic to treat chron­ic insom­nia

#6. Net net, now is the time for indi­vid­ual and col­lec­tive action to shift to a health­i­er “new nor­mal” for all: 3 ways to pro­tect your men­tal health dur­ing –and after– COVID-19 (in Span­ish: Tres hábitos de higiene men­tal para vencer al COVID-19 y crear un futuro más salud­able). Want more? Enjoy these Three tips for wise minds to calm coro­n­avirus anx­i­ety

#7. A small but impor­tant study for that hope­ful near future when uni­ver­si­ties and col­leges reopen their doors: Study finds mixed results of Adder­all as cog­ni­tive enhancer (seems to boost emo­tion more than cog­ni­tion)

#8. But, first things first. “The Bee Gees song “Stayin’ Alive” reached #1 on the pop charts in 1977. Maybe it was the beat, maybe it was John Travolta’s danc­ing. Or maybe it’s that the Gibb broth­ers’ cen­tral lyric is quite lit­er­al­ly always play­ing in our head. Keep­ing us safe —that is, “stayin’ alive ”— is the pri­ma­ry mis­sion of the brain”

Enough with coro­n­avirus out­break. Any­thing else going on? Yes!

#9. The Right to Per­son­al Iden­ti­ty. The Right to Free Will. The Right to Men­tal Pri­va­cy. The Right to Equal Access to Men­tal Aug­men­ta­tion. The Right to Pro­tec­tion from Algo­rith­mic Bias. Will these five Neu­roR­ights help har­ness emerg­ing neu­rotech­nolo­gies for the com­mon good?

#10. “Today, the sci­en­tif­ic inves­ti­ga­tion of tran­scen­dent expe­ri­ences is, in my view, one of the most excit­ing fron­tiers in the sci­ence of well-being.” Tran­scend­ing Maslow’s famous “hier­ar­chy of needs” through Maslow’s own research on Peak Expe­ri­ences

#11. You CAN have your cake and eat it too: Here’s a brain teas­er to stim­u­late your men­tal imagery, spa­tial rota­tion … and appetite

#12. Ques­tion: My first thought after con­grat­u­lat­ing myself on being so clever about some­thing? Tease your brain with these eight fun rid­dles…

 

Wish­ing you and yours a great month of May,

 

The Sharp­Brains Team

Meditation apps have gone mainstream in the covid-19 era

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1. Best med­i­ta­tion apps: prac­tice mind­ful­ness with Head­space, Calm and more (TechRadar):

“The best med­i­ta­tion apps could help you to sleep bet­ter, reduce your stress lev­els and find some much-need­ed inner peace. But giv­en the sit­u­a­tion right now with Covid-19, even if med­i­ta­tion apps just give you a break from the news and a chance to chill out for ten min­utes, they’re more than worth it.

Head­space, one of the most pop­u­lar med­i­ta­tion apps around, first launched 10 years ago. Since then, hun­dreds of oth­er med­i­ta­tion apps have been cre­at­ed and that means find­ing the best med­i­ta­tion app for you can be over­whelm­ing.

But when it comes to med­i­ta­tion, choice is a good thing. [Read more…] about Med­i­ta­tion apps have gone main­stream in the covid-19 era

Eight brain tech insights and a special offer to honor Brain Awareness Week 2020

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Every March, Brain Aware­ness Week (BAW) unites hun­dreds of orga­ni­za­tions world­wide in a cel­e­bra­tion of the brain for peo­ple of all ages. Activ­i­ties typ­i­cal­ly include open days at neu­ro­science labs, exhi­bi­tions about the brain, lec­tures on brain-relat­ed top­ics, dis­plays at libraries and com­mu­ni­ty cen­ters, class­room work­shops, and more.

Brain Aware­ness Week 2020 starts today, Mon­day March 16th.

To con­tribute to such a glob­al edu­ca­tion­al cam­paign, espe­cial­ly now that many phys­i­cal events have been can­celled, we are offer­ing our best edu­ca­tion­al and pro­fes­sion­al resources at a 90% dis­count from today till Sun­day, March 22th.

–> To ben­e­fit from this oppor­tu­ni­ty, use this dis­count code: Brain­Week

 

Stay Healthy, Stay Warm, let’s Har­ness this oppor­tu­ni­ty to Sharp­en our Minds and Explore the lat­est on brain health and neu­rotech­nol­o­gy!

 

Our core edu­ca­tion­al and pro­fes­sion­al resources offered at a 90% dis­count this week: [Read more…] about Eight brain tech insights and a spe­cial offer to hon­or Brain Aware­ness Week 2020

Large study finds positive yet mixed results from Akili’s digital therapeutic for kids with ADHD

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Full pub­li­ca­tion of piv­otal tri­al data out­lines Akil­i’s case for FDA reg­u­la­tion (Mobi­Health­News):

“A full tran­script of STARS-ADHD — the piv­otal tri­al of Akili Interactive’s video game-like pedi­atric atten­tion deficit treat­ment — has been pub­lished in The Lancet Dig­i­tal Health jour­nal, pro­vid­ing onlook­ers a clear view of data fuel­ing the dig­i­tal ther­a­peu­tic company’s pend­ing FDA sub­mis­sion [Read more…] about Large study finds pos­i­tive yet mixed results from Akili’s dig­i­tal ther­a­peu­tic for kids with ADHD

First Digital Health Formulary by Express Scripts includes CBT-based programs to treat depression, anxiety and insomnia

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Source: Express Scripts

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Express Scripts Launch­es First Dig­i­tal Health For­mu­la­ry for Apps & Devices (HIT Con­sul­tant):

“Start­ing in Jan­u­ary 2020, Express Scripts Dig­i­tal Health For­mu­la­ry will ini­tial­ly include 15 solu­tions for remote mon­i­tor­ing ser­vices and dig­i­tal ther­a­peu­tics that aid in the man­age­ment of eight of the country’s most com­mon chron­ic con­di­tions: dia­betes, pre­di­a­betes, hyper­ten­sion, asth­ma, pul­monary dis­ease, depres­sion, anx­i­ety, and insom­nia [Read more…] about First Dig­i­tal Health For­mu­la­ry by Express Scripts includes CBT-based pro­grams to treat depres­sion, anx­i­ety and insom­nia