“Digital therapeutics” vs. “Mental health apps”: A growing debate on standards, regulation and efficacy

By SharpBrains | May 9, 2022

The effi­ca­cy of Men­tal Health Apps (phar­mafo­rum): In Jan­u­ary, PLOS Dig­i­tal Health pub­lished a study which claimed that there’s “sparse” data to sup­port the effi­ca­cy of most men­tal health apps. In their meta-ana­ly­­sis of pub­lished stud­ies, the authors found uni­ver­sal defi­cien­cies and con­clud­ed that there’s no con­vinc­ing evi­dence that app-based inter­ven­tions deliv­er mean­ing­ful out­comes. Without…

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News on how the brain changes over time, how to clear foggy brains, how to multitask (or not), and more

By SharpBrains | April 28, 2022

Wel­come to a new edi­tion of Sharp­Brains’ e‑newsletter, fea­tur­ing time­ly brain & men­tal health news and a fun brain teas­er to test the lim­its of mul­ti-task­ing. #1. Col­lab­o­ra­tive neu­roimag­ing ini­tia­tive Brain­Chart helps chart how brains change across the lifes­pan. Among the many fas­ci­nat­ing find­ings: “The vol­ume of grey mat­ter (brain cells) increas­es rapid­ly from mid-gestation…

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Debate: Will digital therapeutics gain the required levels of awareness, adoption, reimbursement and fulfillment to become sustainable?

By SharpBrains | April 21, 2022

Can dig­i­tal ther­a­peu­tics become prof­itable? (MedTech­Dive): In 2020, the Food and Drug Admin­is­tra­tion cleared Akili Inter­ac­tive’s video game to improve atten­tion in kids with ADHD. It was the first time that a video game for treat­ment was cleared by the agency, and is one exam­ple of a dig­i­tal ther­a­peu­tic, a class of soft­­ware-based treat­ments with…

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From “Eminence-based” to Evidence-based cognitive & mental healthcare: Time for quality and accountability

By SharpBrains | March 31, 2022

Wel­come to a new edi­tion of Sharp­Brains’ e‑newsletter, fea­tur­ing time­ly brain & men­tal health news, two excel­lent new books and a few fun brain teasers. #1. From “Emi­­nence-based” to Evi­­dence-based men­tal health­care: Time to focus on qual­i­ty and account­abil­i­ty “The real chal­lenge is not find­ing a ther­a­pist, it’s find­ing a ther­a­pist who knows how to provide…

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Separating brain-healthy wheat from chaff is becoming more urgent by the day

By SharpBrains | March 21, 2022

A) New video game com­pa­ny aims to devel­op ther­a­peu­tic games (The Verge): Video game-based tools can help with con­di­tions like depres­sion and ADHD, research shows. Deep­Well Dig­i­tal Ther­a­peu­tics plans to build on those stud­ies. “There was an amaz­ing amount of sci­ence that had already been done,” Dou­glas says. “We start­ed to rec­og­nize exact­ly how ther­a­peu­tic these games already were.”

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A few slow-paced breaths are enough to significantly reduce physiological stress

By SharpBrains | January 31, 2022

Wel­come to a new edi­tion of Sharp­Brains’ e‑newsletter, shar­ing impor­tant brain & men­tal health news plus a cou­ple fun brain teasers to test your men­tal self-rota­­tion skills. #1. Study: Edu­ca­tion and lifestyle helped over a mil­lion old­er Amer­i­cans avoid seri­ous cog­ni­tive prob­lems in 2017 Let’s kick­start 2022 with some good news: “The preva­lence of seri­ous cognitive…

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