medications

Study: Self-guided sleep app Sleepio, combined with standard care for depression and anxiety, delivers better outcomes than standard care alone

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Study backs ben­e­fit of insom­nia DTx Sleepio on men­tal health (pharmapho­rum):

The study – pub­lished in the jour­nal Behav­iour Research and Ther­a­py – test­ed the Sleepio app devel­oped by dig­i­tal health spe­cial­ist Big Health as an add-on to stan­dard NHS care for anx­i­ety and depres­sion under the improv­ing access to psy­cho­log­i­cal ther­a­pies (IAPT) policy.

Patients who signed up to use Sleepio – a six-week dig­i­tal cog­ni­tive behav­iour­al ther­a­py (CBT) course – achieved sig­nif­i­cant­ly bet­ter improve­ment in symp­toms com­pared to con­trols, with an IAPT recov­ery rate of near­ly 65% ver­sus 58% in the con­trol group. [Read more…] about Study: Self-guid­ed sleep app Sleepio, com­bined with stan­dard care for depres­sion and anx­i­ety, deliv­ers bet­ter out­comes than stan­dard care alone

Anticholinergic drugs found to significantly increase risk of cognitive decline, especially among those with Alzheimer’s Disease biomarkers or genetic predisposition

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Com­mon Class of Drugs Linked to Increased Risk of Alzheimer’s Dis­ease (UC San Diego release):

A team of sci­en­tists, led by researchers at Uni­ver­si­ty of Cal­i­for­nia San Diego School of Med­i­cine, report that a class of drugs used for a broad array of con­di­tions, from aller­gies and colds to hyper­ten­sion and uri­nary incon­ti­nence, may be asso­ci­at­ed with an increased risk of cog­ni­tive decline, par­tic­u­lar­ly in old­er adults at greater risk for Alzheimer’s dis­ease (AD) … cog­ni­tive­ly nor­mal study par­tic­i­pants who were tak­ing at least one anti­cholin­er­gic drug at base­line were 47 per­cent more like­ly to devel­op mild cog­ni­tive impair­ment (MCI), often a pre­cur­sor to demen­tia such as AD, while being tracked over a peri­od of up to a decade com­pared to par­tic­i­pants who did not take such drugs. [Read more…] about Anti­cholin­er­gic drugs found to sig­nif­i­cant­ly increase risk of cog­ni­tive decline, espe­cial­ly among those with Alzheimer’s Dis­ease bio­mark­ers or genet­ic predisposition

Reminder: A brain-friendly lifestyle is the best approach to delay cognitive decline and dementia

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While the hip­pocam­pus tends to shrink with age, which con­tributes to cog­ni­tive decline, a recent study shows that this is not always the case (see all those blue lines), sug­gest­ing it can be pos­si­ble to main­tain hip­pocam­pus vol­ume and cog­ni­tive func­tion into our lat­er years.

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What Sci­ence Tells Us About Pre­vent­ing Demen­tia (The Wall Street Journal):

“When it comes to bat­tling demen­tia, the unfor­tu­nate news is this: Med­ica­tions have proven inef­fec­tive at cur­ing or stop­ping the dis­ease and its most com­mon form, Alzheimer’s dis­ease. But that isn’t the end of the sto­ry. Accord­ing to a recent wave of sci­en­tif­ic stud­ies, we have more con­trol over our cog­ni­tive health than is com­mon­ly known. We just have to take cer­tain steps—ideally, ear­ly and often—to live a health­i­er lifestyle.

In fact, accord­ing to a recent report com­mis­sioned by the Lancet, a med­ical jour­nal, around 35% of demen­tia cas­es might be pre­vent­ed if [Read more…] about Reminder: A brain-friend­ly lifestyle is the best approach to delay cog­ni­tive decline and dementia

Think twice before taking Aderall for cognitive enhancement: It may actually impair working memory and other cognitive abilities

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ADHD drugs do not improve cog­ni­tion in healthy col­lege stu­dents (Sci­enceDai­ly):

“Con­trary to pop­u­lar belief across col­lege cam­pus­es, atten­tion deficit hyper­ac­tiv­i­ty dis­or­der (ADHD) med­ica­tions may fail to improve cog­ni­tion in healthy stu­dents and actu­al­ly can impair func­tion­ing, accord­ing to a study by researchers at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Rhode Island and Brown Uni­ver­si­ty. [Read more…] about Think twice before tak­ing Ader­all for cog­ni­tive enhance­ment: It may actu­al­ly impair work­ing mem­o­ry and oth­er cog­ni­tive abilities

When Healthcare ignores Mental Health: 200 common prescription medications increase depression risk

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Many Amer­i­cans tak­ing com­mon meds that may cause depres­sion, study finds (CBS News):

“More than one-third of U.S. adults are tak­ing pre­scrip­tion med­ica­tions that may lead to depres­sion, new research finds. The study, pub­lished in the Jour­nal of the Amer­i­can Med­ical Asso­ci­a­tion, warns that depres­sion is a poten­tial side effect of more than 200 com­mon­ly pre­scribed med­ica­tions, [Read more…] about When Health­care ignores Men­tal Health: 200 com­mon pre­scrip­tion med­ica­tions increase depres­sion risk

Study: For good and bad, TV ads promote higher prescribing volume of psychiatric medications

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couple_watching_televisionHow Are Direct-to-Con­sumer-Adver­tise­ments Chang­ing Psy­chi­atric Drug Use? (The Dana Foundation):

“Flip on your tele­vi­sion to a com­mer­cial sta­tion and you are like­ly to see ads for cars, snacks, and home appliances—and pre­scrip­tion med­ica­tions. Some ads specif­i­cal­ly tar­get psy­chi­atric ill­ness­es [Read more…] about Study: For good and bad, TV ads pro­mote high­er pre­scrib­ing vol­ume of psy­chi­atric medications