pharmacotherapy

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

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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

Pear Therapeutics raises $50M to develop and market a portfolio of digital therapeutics for mental health

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Pear Ther­a­peu­tics rakes in $50M to devel­op addi­tion­al dig­i­tal ther­a­peu­tics (Mobi­Health­News):

“Boston- and San Fran­cis­co-based Pear Ther­a­peu­tics, mak­er of a pre­scrip­tion dig­i­tal ther­a­peu­tic plat­form, announced today the clo­sure of $50 mil­lion in Series B fund­ing. The round was led by Sin­ga­pore-based invest­ment com­pa­ny Temasek, with par­tic­i­pa­tion from return­ing investors 5AM Ven­tures, Arbore­tum Ven­tures, and JAZZ Ven­ture Part­ners, as well as new part­ners Novar­tis, EDBI, and the Bridge Builder’s Col­lab­o­ra­tive [Read more…] about Pear Ther­a­peu­tics rais­es $50M to devel­op and mar­ket a port­fo­lio of dig­i­tal ther­a­peu­tics for men­tal health

Study: Rates of ADHD diagnosis and medication treatment continue to increase substantially

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Begin­ning in about 1990, sub­stan­tial increas­es in the rates of ADHD diag­no­sis and med­ical treat­ment were found in sev­er­al nation­al­ly rep­re­sen­ta­tive sam­ples of US physi­cian office vis­its. For exam­ple, between 1995–96 and 2007-08, the num­ber of office vis­its at which an ADHD diag­no­sis was made increased by over 400% in adults — from 3.1 per 1000 vis­its to 14.5 per 1000 vis­its. And, the per­cent of adult office vis­its includ­ing both ADHD diag­no­sis and med­ica­tion increased from 1.9 to 11.4 per 1000 visits.

Among chil­dren aged 5 to 18, between 1991–92 and 2008-09, rates of ADHD diag­no­sis increased near­ly 4‑fold among boys — from 39.5 to 144.6 per 1000 — and near­ly 6‑fold for girls — from 12.3 and 68.5 per 1000 vis­its. Dur­ing this time, the rate of vis­its that also involved med­ica­tion treat­ment increased by sim­i­lar rates. [Read more…] about Study: Rates of ADHD diag­no­sis and med­ica­tion treat­ment con­tin­ue to increase substantially

On the limits of Citicoline and the need for comprehensive brain injury rehabilitation

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Citi­co­l­ine does not improve func­tion­al, cog­ni­tive sta­tus in patients with trau­mat­ic brain injury (Out­come Magazine):

“Although approved for use for treat­ing trau­mat­ic brain injury (TBI) in near­ly 60 coun­tries, use of citi­co­l­ine in a ran­dom­ized tri­al that includ­ed more than 1,200 par­tic­i­pants with TBI did not result in improve­ment in func­tion­al and cog­ni­tive sta­tus, accord­ing to a study appear­ing in the Novem­ber 21 issue of JAMA.

“Despite con­sid­er­able advances in emer­gency and crit­i­cal care man­age­ment of TBI as well as decades of research on poten­tial agents for neu­ro­pro­tec­tion or enhanced recov­ery, no effec­tive phar­ma­cother­a­py has yet been iden­ti­fied [Read more…] about On the lim­its of Citi­co­l­ine and the need for com­pre­hen­sive brain injury rehabilitation

Research: Cognitive Behaviour Therapy Helps Adults with ADHD

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Many adults with ADHD do not obtain their diag­no­sis until adult­hood and have strug­gled with dif­fi­cul­ties relat­ed to undi­ag­nosed ADHD for their entire lives. As doc­u­ment­ed in recent stud­ies, this includes ele­vat­ed rates of depres­sion, anx­i­ety dis­or­ders, sub­stance use, work dif­fi­cul­ties and inter­per­son­al problems.

As with chil­dren and ado­les­cents, med­ica­tion treat­ment for adults with ADHD can be quite help­ful, espe­cial­ly for reduc­ing core ADHD symp­toms of inat­ten­tion and hyperactivity/impulsivity.  How­ev­er, [Read more…] about Research: Cog­ni­tive Behav­iour Ther­a­py Helps Adults with ADHD