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meta-analysis

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

May 9, 2022 by SharpBrains

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 dig­ging fur­ther, one might think the cur­rent case for dig­i­tal ther­a­peu­tics is weak.

I reviewed all 14 meta-analy­ses includ­ed in the study and found the analy­sis to be accu­rate, but incom­plete. [Read more…] about “Dig­i­tal ther­a­peu­tics” vs. “Men­tal health apps”: A grow­ing debate on stan­dards, reg­u­la­tion and efficacy

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Filed Under: Brain/ Mental Health, Technology & Innovation Tagged With: Big Health, digital health, digital therapeutics, Digital Therapeutics Alliance, DTx, FDA, Happify Health, mental health apps, mental illness, meta-analysis, Orexo, PEAR, PLOS Digital Health

Growing research supports Heart Rate Variability (HRV) biofeedback training to lower stress and anxiety, increase sports performance

March 29, 2021 by SharpBrains

What’s HRV? An impor­tant health met­ric every golfer should pay atten­tion to (Golf.com):

As ama­teur golfers, we’d love to play like the pros. There’s no doubt that you would trade your banana slice for Dustin Johnson’s pen­e­trat­ing 300-yard dri­ve down the mid­dle of the fair­way or Collin Morikawa’s impec­ca­ble ball strik­ing in a heartbeat.

Unfor­tu­nate­ly, we have lim­it­ing fac­tors — be they phys­i­cal abil­i­ty, mon­ey, time or some­thing else. But that doesn’t mean we can’t adopt a few things the Tour pros do to stay in shape in our own lives. [Read more…] about Grow­ing research sup­ports Heart Rate Vari­abil­i­ty (HRV) biofeed­back train­ing to low­er stress and anx­i­ety, increase sports performance

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Filed Under: Brain/ Mental Health, Peak Performance, Technology & Innovation Tagged With: ambulatory monitoring, anxiety, athletic performance, athletic training, biofeedback, biofeedback training, exercise, heart-rate-variability, HRV, lower anxiety, lower stress, meta-analysis, mobile health technologies, prognosis, Stress, wearable devices

Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation shows early promise to ameliorate depression, especially if combined with other therapies and dosage optimized

October 1, 2018 by SharpBrains

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Tran­scra­nial Direct Cur­rent Stim­u­la­tion Promis­ing for Major Depres­sive Dis­or­der (Psy­chi­a­try Advisor):

“Tran­scra­nial direct cur­rent stim­u­la­tion (tDCS) is an inves­tiga­tive modal­i­ty for major depres­sive dis­or­der (MDD) that has shown some promis­ing results. Though it has a while before it is approved by the US Food and Drug Admin­is­tra­tion, clin­i­cians and patients have been clam­or­ing for an effec­tive treat­ment for MDD that is not asso­ci­at­ed with harm­ful adverse effects. [Read more…] about Tran­scra­nial Direct Cur­rent Stim­u­la­tion shows ear­ly promise to ame­lio­rate depres­sion, espe­cial­ly if com­bined with oth­er ther­a­pies and dosage optimized

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Filed Under: Brain/ Mental Health, Technology & Innovation Tagged With: depression, efficacy, Major Depressive Disorder, MDD, meta-analysis, NICE, pharmacotherapy, tDCS, Transcranial-direct-current-stimulation, US Food and Drug Administration

Meta-analysis finds value in teaching the science of neuroplasticity, especially for math achievement among at-risk students

August 13, 2018 by SharpBrains

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The ‘Brain’ in Growth Mind­set: Does Teach­ing Stu­dents Neu­ro­science Help? (Edu­ca­tion Week):

“Teach­ing stu­dents the sci­ence of how their brains change over time can help them see intel­li­gence as some­thing they can devel­op, rather than innate and unchange­able, finds a new analy­sis of 10 sep­a­rate stud­ies online in the jour­nal Trends in Neu­ro­science and Education.

Teach­ing stu­dents the con­cept of neuroplasticity—the abil­i­ty of the brain to make new neur­al con­nec­tions as a result of experience—is a com­mon tac­tic in help­ing stu­dents devel­op a so-called “growth” rather than “fixed” mind­set … on aver­age, such inter­ven­tions improved stu­dents’ moti­va­tion, they par­tic­u­lar­ly ben­e­fit­ed stu­dents and sub­jects which pri­or stud­ies have shown are at high risk of devel­op­ing a fixed mind­set. [Read more…] about Meta-analy­sis finds val­ue in teach­ing the sci­ence of neu­ro­plas­tic­i­ty, espe­cial­ly for math achieve­ment among at-risk students

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Filed Under: Education & Lifelong Learning Tagged With: achievement, brain-activity, growth-mindset, intelligence, Learning, math, meta-analysis, mindset, motivation, neuroplasticity, neuroscience, teaching

Meta-analysis finds sustained benefits of neurofeedback for kids with ADHD

July 3, 2018 by Dr. David Rabiner

Image result for neurofeedback adhd kids___

In neu­ro­feed­back treat­ment for ADHD, indi­vid­u­als learn to alter their typ­i­cal pat­tern of brain­wave activ­i­ty, i.e., EEG activ­i­ty, to one that is con­sis­tent with a focused and atten­tive state.

This is done by col­lect­ing EEG data from indi­vid­u­als as they focus on stim­uli pre­sent­ed on a com­put­er screen. Their abil­i­ty to con­trol the stim­uli, e.g., keep­ing the smile on a smi­ley face keep­ing a video play­ing, depends on their main­tain­ing an EEG state that reflects focused attention.

Over time, most indi­vid­u­als bet­ter at this. Sup­port­ers of neu­ro­feed­back argue that learn­ing to alter EEG activ­i­ty and focus bet­ter dur­ing train­ing even­tu­al­ly gen­er­al­izes to real-world tasks that require strong atten­tion skills, e.g., read­ing, home­work, etc.

Although many experts remain skep­ti­cal of this approach, despite numer­ous sup­port­ive stud­ies, a recent­ly pub­lished meta-analy­sis of neu­ro­feed­back treat­ment pro­vides impor­tant new sup­port. [Read more…] about Meta-analy­sis finds sus­tained ben­e­fits of neu­ro­feed­back for kids with ADHD

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Filed Under: Attention & ADD/ADHD, Brain/ Mental Health, Education & Lifelong Learning, Technology & Innovation Tagged With: adhd, ADHD-symptoms, brainwave, EEG activity, meta-analysis, Neurofeedback, training

Evidence review finds that computer-based cognitive training can significantly improve memory in patients with multiple sclerosis (MS)

April 6, 2018 by SharpBrains

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Com­put­er-Based Cog­ni­tive Train­ing Improves Mem­o­ry Domains in Mul­ti­ple Scle­ro­sis (Neu­rol­o­gy Advisor):

“Com­put­er-based cog­ni­tive train­ing may assist in improv­ing mem­o­ry in patients with mul­ti­ple scle­ro­sis (MS), accord­ing to a sys­tem­at­ic review pub­lished in Mul­ti­ple Scle­ro­sis and Relat­ed Disorders.

A total of 9 stud­ies report­ing the use of com­put­er-based cog­ni­tive train­ing in patients with MS were includ­ed in [Read more…] about Evi­dence review finds that com­put­er-based cog­ni­tive train­ing can sig­nif­i­cant­ly improve mem­o­ry in patients with mul­ti­ple scle­ro­sis (MS)

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Filed Under: Brain/ Mental Health, Technology & Innovation Tagged With: Cognitive-Training, Computer-based cognitive rehabilitation, meta-analysis, multiple-sclerosis, neuropsychological, neuropsychological assessment, Neuropsychological performance, Systematic review

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