APA: With digital mental health going mainstream, will/ should psychologists be able to “prescribe” interventions?

By SharpBrains | January 14, 2022

Men­tal health, meet ven­ture cap­i­tal (APA): Until recent­ly, men­tal health was a rel­a­tive blip on the radar of ven­ture cap­i­tal­ists. But over the past few years, and par­tic­u­lar­ly since the onset of the COVID-19 pan­dem­ic, pri­vate investors have made a dra­mat­ic run for this space, pour­ing $3.1 bil­lion into men­tal health ven­tures by the third…

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Update: Why MDMA-assisted psychotherapy may become an FDA-approved treatment for PTSD within 2 years

By SharpBrains | December 30, 2021

Wel­come to a new edi­tion of Sharp­Brains’ e‑newsletter, shar­ing impor­tant brain/ men­tal health news plus a few fun opti­cal illu­sions to tease and appre­ci­ate our unique human minds. #1. Why MDMA-assist­ed psy­chother­a­py may become an FDA-approved treat­ment for PTSD with­in 2 years “We are a phar­ma­cist and physi­cian team who inves­ti­gate the ben­e­fits and harms asso­ci­at­ed with…

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Trend: Harnessing digital tech to improve mental health and wellness

By SharpBrains | October 25, 2021

From mind­ful­ness apps to vir­tu­al ther­a­py ses­sions, dig­i­tal tools offer instant access to well­ness resources (The Globe and Mail): In 2015, Brie Code was work­ing at lead­ing video game com­pa­ny Ubisoft as lead arti­fi­cial intel­li­gence pro­gram­mer when she real­ized that many peo­ple she knew – about half, by her esti­ma­tion – found video games boring.

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New book shares science and techniques to breathe better and promote calmness not anxiety

By Greater Good Science Center | November 17, 2020 |

Scrolling social media, amid fran­tic elec­­tion-relat­ed posts and news of esca­lat­ing COVID-19 cas­es, you may have come across a friend remind­ing every­one to just breathe. But can just-breath­ing real­ly make a dif­fer­ence? In his new book Breath: The New Sci­ence of a Lost Art, jour­nal­ist James Nestor argues that mod­ern humans have become pret­ty bad…

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On neurons, lifelong learning, meditation, humility, “empty brain calories” and more

By SharpBrains | October 30, 2020

Wel­come to a new edi­tion of Sharp­Brains’ e‑newsletter, fea­tur­ing 12 fas­ci­nat­ing neu­ro­science find­ings and open questions–and the beau­ti­ful image above. #1. “With this image I want to illus­trate the large advances made in imag­ing meth­ods over the past cen­tu­ry, allow­ing mod­ern neu­ro­sci­en­tists to look at neu­rons in ways that Cajal could have only dreamed of.” –…

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Debate: Can mindfulness and meditation be harmful?

By SharpBrains | October 14, 2020

Yes (in per­haps 8% of indi­vid­u­als). Can mind­ful­ness and med­i­ta­tion be harm­ful? (Sci­ence Focus): Med­i­ta­tion has escaped both the reli­gious cells of monks and nuns and the labs of sci­en­tists. An increas­ing num­ber of peo­ple are using med­i­ta­tion apps to deal with men­tal health prob­lems, such as depres­sion and anx­i­ety. Although there is no clear estimate…

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