post-traumatic-stress-disorder

Adding mindfulness to the PTSD therapist’s toolkit

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mindfulness_ptsd—–

Sol­diers who return home in casts and cas­kets are not the only ones struck down by the trau­ma of war. Many young mil­i­tary men and women car­ry emo­tion­al wounds far beyond the bat­tle­field in the form of post-trau­mat­ic stress dis­or­der (PTSD). This [Read more…] about Adding mind­ful­ness to the PTSD therapist’s toolkit

Since more than 50% of people worldwide can’t access appropriate mental health treatments, let’s welcome (and test) mobile health apps

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mobilehealthMen­tal Health: There’s an App for That (Nature):

“Type ‘depres­sion’ into the Apple App Store and a list of at least a hun­dred pro­grams will pop up on the screen. There are apps that diag­nose depres­sion (Depres­sion Test), track moods (Opti­mism) and help peo­ple to “think more pos­i­tive” [Read more…] about Since more than 50% of peo­ple world­wide can’t access appro­pri­ate men­tal health treat­ments, let’s wel­come (and test) mobile health apps

For college students, mental health screening kiosks offer ‘Check-Up from the Neck Up’

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kiosk mental health

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A ‘Check-Up from the Neck Up’ — Men­tal Health Screen­ing Kiosks at Drex­el (Drex­el Now):

“Dur­ing their time in col­lege, most stu­dents learn the impor­tance of look­ing out for their own health.

How­ev­er, some miss the con­nec­tion that their men­tal well-being is just as impor­tant as keep­ing a reg­u­lar exer­cise reg­i­men or eat­ing the right diet [Read more…] about For col­lege stu­dents, men­tal health screen­ing kiosks offer ‘Check-Up from the Neck Up’

General Chiarelli: “We have a totally dysfunctional research system (for brain and mental health)”

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Peter Chiarelli

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Gen­er­al Chiarelli’s Brain Cru­sade (Politi­co):

“Soon after Peter Chiarel­li became vice chief of staff of the Army in 2008, a sub­or­di­nate showed him a bar graph depict­ing the num­ber of sol­diers deter­mined by the Depart­ment of Vet­er­ans Affairs to be at least 30 per­cent dis­abled. The tallest col­umn was on the far left. [Read more…] about Gen­er­al Chiarel­li: “We have a total­ly dys­func­tion­al research sys­tem (for brain and men­tal health)”

Accelerating brain health research via online registries

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InternetSan Fran­cis­co-based online ‘brain reg­istry’ seeks vol­un­teers to trans­form research (San Jose Mer­cury News):

“By vol­un­teer­ing — repeat­ed­ly over time — par­tic­i­pants join a pool of research sub­jects in the new Brain Health Reg­istry, opened Tues­day, for stud­ies on brain dis­eases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkin­son’s, as well as depres­sion, post-trau­mat­ic stress dis­or­der and oth­er neu­ro­log­i­cal ail­ments. [Read more…] about Accel­er­at­ing brain health research via online registries

PTSD: Can we Disrupt the Reconsolidation of Traumatic Memories?

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8% of Amer­i­cans suf­fer from PTSD and this rate increas­es up to 15% as far as vet­er­ans are con­cerned. PTSD or Post Trau­mat­ic Stress Dis­or­der is a type of anx­i­ety dis­or­der that occurs after see­ing or expe­ri­enc­ing a trau­mat­ic event. Peo­ple with PTSD have per­sis­tent fright­en­ing thoughts and mem­o­ries of the event. They may expe­ri­ence sleep prob­lems, feel detached or numb, or be eas­i­ly startled.

This arti­cle from the Dana Foun­da­tion asks a very inter­est­ing question:

Can we dis­rupt the recon­sol­i­da­tion of trau­mat­ic mem­o­ries that con­tribute to PTSD and bring relief to patients suf­fer­ing from this disorder?

This com­plete and stim­u­lat­ing read tells us how mem­o­ries are formed and con­sol­i­dat­ed. The authors dis­cuss the dif­fer­ent tech­niques used or under research that can help PTSD patients. Since avail­able ther­a­pies have suc­cess rates of only 60%, this is a press­ing top­ic these days. The eth­i­cal ques­tion of whether it is okay to look for solu­tions to erase mem­o­ries is also raised.

Relat­ed arti­cle: Can Brain Fit­ness Inno­va­tion Enhance Cog­ni­tive Rehab?