Tracking Health and Wellness Applications of Brain Science

post-traumatic-stress-disorder

Why MDMA-assisted psychotherapy may become an FDA-approved treatment for PTSD within 2 years

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For peo­ple with post-trau­mat­ic stress dis­or­der, recall­ing mem­o­ries of phys­i­cal or sex­u­al assault, com­bat or dis­as­ter-relat­ed events can induce intense anx­i­ety or pan­ic attacks as well as debil­i­tat­ing flashbacks.

In the U.S., about 7% of peo­ple suf­fer from PTSD and lose an aver­age of about four work­ing days each month as a result. Trau­ma-spe­cif­ic psy­chother­a­py, like cog­ni­tive pro­cess­ing or “talk” ther­a­py, is the cor­ner­stone of treat­ment for PTSD. But for approx­i­mate­ly half of peo­ple, these tra­di­tion­al approach­es are inef­fec­tive at ful­ly address­ing PTSD symp­toms over the long term. Anti­de­pres­sant drugs are fre­quent­ly used if psy­chother­a­py fails, or in com­bi­na­tion with it, but the effects are usu­al­ly mod­est. [Read more…] about Why MDMA-assist­ed psy­chother­a­py may become an FDA-approved treat­ment for PTSD with­in 2 years

Study finds MDMA-assisted therapy to be safe and highly effective to treat severe PTSD

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The First Phase 3 Suc­cess for Psy­che­delics Will Pave the Way for an Indus­try (Bar­ron’s):

Post-trau­mat­ic stress dis­or­der is a crip­pling, hard-to-treat psy­chi­atric afflic­tion. Amer­i­ca spends bil­lions of dol­lars year­ly just on the vet­er­ans who suf­fer from PTSD. So it’s heart­en­ing to see the report of a promis­ing new treat­ment, pub­lished Mon­day in Nature Med­i­cine. [Read more…] about Study finds MDMA-assist­ed ther­a­py to be safe and high­ly effec­tive to treat severe PTSD

Repetitive negative thinking may increase (or perhaps be caused by) cognitive decline and Alzheimer’s pathology

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Dementia: negative thinking linked with more rapid cognitive decline, study indicates

Demen­tia affects an esti­mat­ed 54 mil­lion peo­ple world­wide. There no cure, but reports indi­cate that approx­i­mate­ly a third of demen­tia cas­es may be pre­ventable, which is why many researchers have begun to focus on iden­ti­fy­ing risk fac­tors. This would allow for bet­ter per­son­alised inter­ven­tions that may be able to reduce risk, delay, or even pre­vent the onset of dementia.

Cur­rent research shows that genet­ics, high blood pres­sure, and smok­ing are all risk fac­tors for devel­op­ing demen­tia. But a lot of peo­ple don’t realise that there is also a rela­tion­ship between men­tal ill-health and high­er demen­tia risk too. Stud­ies have shown that depres­sion, anx­i­ety, and post trau­mat­ic stress dis­or­der are all linked to a high­er risk of devel­op­ing demen­tia in old­er age. Our recent study builds on this research by exam­in­ing whether a style of think­ing that is com­mon to these men­tal health con­di­tions is asso­ci­at­ed with indi­ca­tors of Alzheimer’s dis­ease, the most com­mon type of dementia.

Peo­ple expe­ri­enc­ing men­tal ill health fre­quent­ly engage in a style of think­ing called “Repet­i­tive Neg­a­tive Think­ing”. This style of think­ing involves the ten­den­cy to have neg­a­tive thoughts about the future (wor­ry) or about the past (rumi­na­tion), and these thoughts can feel uncontrollable.

In 2015, I devel­oped a hypoth­e­sis called [Read more…] about Repet­i­tive neg­a­tive think­ing may increase (or per­haps be caused by) cog­ni­tive decline and Alzheimer’s pathology

UW Medicine creates new Institute for Brain Health Solutions focused on cognitive aging, brain wellness and mental health

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$50 mil­lion gift is foun­da­tion for brain dis­or­ders research (UW press release):

“UW Med­i­cine is cre­at­ing the Gar­vey Insti­tute for Brain Health Solu­tions to devel­op effec­tive new treat­ments for brain dis­or­ders, such as depres­sion, post-trau­mat­ic stress dis­or­der, addic­tion and Alzheimer’s dis­ease. The foun­da­tion­al $50 mil­lion gift to estab­lish the insti­tute was made by local phil­an­thropists Lynn and Mike Gar­vey [Read more…] about UW Med­i­cine cre­ates new Insti­tute for Brain Health Solu­tions focused on cog­ni­tive aging, brain well­ness and men­tal health

Trend: Biopharma embraces digital cognitive assessments to identify behavioral health biomarkers

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The hunt for behav­ioral health bio­mark­ers is har­ness­ing dig­i­tal health at the research stage (Med­C­i­ty News):

“Dig­i­tal health com­pa­nies are going through an inter­est­ing trans­for­ma­tion as research insti­tu­tions real­ize the ben­e­fit of their tech­nol­o­gy to col­lect and man­age data for a host of stud­ies. The bio­phar­ma industry’s embrace of some dig­i­tal health tools to man­age the costs of drug devel­op­ment has led to more fre­quent col­lab­o­ra­tions with [Read more…] about Trend: Bio­phar­ma embraces dig­i­tal cog­ni­tive assess­ments to iden­ti­fy behav­ioral health biomarkers

Study: Common medication treatments for PTSD can increase the risk of developing dementia

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Drugs for PTSD linked to increased risk of demen­tia (The Phar­ma­ceu­ti­cal Journal):

“Cer­tain psy­chotrop­ic drugs used to treat post-trau­mat­ic stress dis­or­der (PTSD) increase the risk of devel­op­ing demen­tia, includ­ing in patients who do not have PTSD but take the drugs for oth­er con­di­tions, study results pub­lished in the Jour­nal of the Amer­i­can Geri­atrics Soci­ety [Read more…] about Study: Com­mon med­ica­tion treat­ments for PTSD can increase the risk of devel­op­ing dementia