NHS

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

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly of Applied Neuroscience and Neurotechnology

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After a very busy month, it’s time now for Sharp­Brains e‑newsletter to sum­ma­rize the lat­est ini­tia­tives, tools and ideas for life­long brain health and men­tal fit­ness — and to share a few puz­zles and illu­sions to tease your brain.

A grow­ing num­ber of class­rooms in Chi­na are equipped with arti­fi­cial-intel­li­gence cam­eras and brain-wave track­ers. Video: Crys­tal Tai for The Wall Street Journal.

New neuro-infused education and healthcare initiatives:

New neurotech and digital health tools:

New thinking on brain and mental health:

Finally, a few fun brain teasers for adults and kids alike 🙂

 

Have a great month of October,

 

The Sharp­Brains Team

The National Health Service (NHS) in the UK considers adding a 5‑minute cognitive test to its annual health check-up

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Using AI assess­ment to tack­le demen­tia in ultra-ear­ly stages (Dig­i­tal Health):

“Demen­tia and Alzheimer’s dis­ease con­tin­ue to increase and remain the lead­ing cause of death in Eng­land and Wales, account­ing for 12.8% of all deaths reg­is­tered in 2018 [Read more…] about The Nation­al Health Ser­vice (NHS) in the UK con­sid­ers adding a 5‑minute cog­ni­tive test to its annu­al health check-up

NHS Choices helps improve brain health and science literacy by reporting findings in context — as seen in this brain training & schizophrenia example

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Video game-based ‘brain train­ing’ may help peo­ple with schiz­o­phre­nia (NHS Choices):

“Peo­ple with schiz­o­phre­nia can be trained by play­ing a video game to con­trol the part of the brain linked to ver­bal hal­lu­ci­na­tions,” BBC News reports [Read more…] about NHS Choic­es helps improve brain health and sci­ence lit­er­a­cy by report­ing find­ings in con­text — as seen in this brain train­ing & schiz­o­phre­nia example

Brain training (cognitive behavioural therapy) seen as most cost-effective treatment for chronic fatigue syndrome

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Pac­ing ‘not cost-effec­tive’ for CFS (NHS Choices):

“Brain train­ing is most cost-effec­tive treat­ment for chron­ic fatigue syn­drome,” BBC News reports, while pac­ing ther­a­pies (learn­ing to live with­in lim­its) “offer lit­tle value”.

“This news is based on research that aimed to deter­mine how cost-effec­tive four treat­ment options were for peo­ple with CFS. These were: [Read more…] about Brain train­ing (cog­ni­tive behav­iour­al ther­a­py) seen as most cost-effec­tive treat­ment for chron­ic fatigue syndrome

Does cognitive therapy work; should the NHS provide more of it for depression?

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Excel­lent arti­cle in the UK’s news­pa­per The Inde­pen­dent on the grow­ing adop­tion of cog­ni­tive-behav­iour­al ther­a­py (CBT) by the Nation­al Health Ser­vice (NHS). Very rel­e­vant to the US too, giv­en that a grow­ing num­ber of insur­ers are offer­ing com­put­er­ized CBT. Quotes:

“Why are we ask­ing this now?42-15315934

There is grow­ing frus­tra­tion among GPs at the dif­fi­cul­ty they face in pro­vid­ing psy­cho­log­i­cal ther­a­py for patients with men­tal prob­lems includ­ing depres­sion. A sur­vey by the Roy­al Col­lege of Gen­er­al Prac­ti­tion­ers (RCGP) pub­lished at the week­end found almost two-thirds of respon­dents said they were “rarely” able to obtain treat­ment for patients with­in two months. Get­ting help for chil­dren who had suf­fered abuse or trau­ma was even more dif­fi­cult. Pro­fes­sor Steve Field, the pres­i­dent of the RCGP, said: “Peo­ple should have access to approved treat­ments, and this has to be a wake-up call.”

What does this mean for patients?

Where­as in the past, GPs might have pre­scribed Prozac or oth­er anti­de­pres­sants, cog­ni­tive-behav­iour­al ther­a­py (CBT) is now the treat­ment of first choice – where it is avail­able – for the mil­lions who turn up com­plain­ing they can­not cope. In 2007, the Gov­ern­ment ear­marked £173m to train 3,600 extra ther­a­pists by 2010.

So why the short­age of therapists?

The cash is no longer ring-fenced and has alleged­ly been siphoned away to pay for oth­er projects. The RCGP and Mind, the men­tal-health char­i­ty, are cam­paign­ing for a com­mit­ment from all three main polit­i­cal par­ties to ring-fence cash for talk­ing ther­a­pies. The Nation­al Insti­tute for Health and Clin­i­cal Excel­lence (Nice) says CBT should be the first-line treat­ment for mild to mod­er­ate depres­sion, fol­lowed by drugs only if it proves unsuccessful.”

Keep read­ing  The Big Ques­tion: Does cog­ni­tive ther­a­py work – and should the NHS pro­vide more of it for depres­sion? (The Independent)