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

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

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,…

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

___ 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…

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

___ 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.…

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

___ 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.,…

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

___ 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…

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