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Psychotherapy

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

May 18, 2021 by SharpBrains

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

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Filed Under: Brain/ Mental Health Tagged With: Clinical-Trial, Ecstasy, MDMA, MDMA-assisted therapy, methylenedioxymethamphetamine, Molly, post-traumatic-stress-disorder, psychedelics, Psychotherapy, PTSD, severe PTSD

On Brain Awareness Week, mental health innovation, tDCS, biofeedback, psychedelics, and more

February 26, 2021 by SharpBrains

Wel­come to a new edi­tion of Sharp­Brains’ e‑newsletter, start­ing with some ideas to get in the mood for Brain Aware­ness Week next month (March 15–21st). May BAW 2021 be a hun­dred times more upbeat than last year’s…

#1. Sev­en brain teasers and a neu­ro­plas­tic­i­ty pod­cast to cel­e­brate Brain Aware­ness Week 2021

#2. Imag­ine what this capa­bil­i­ty may mean just a few years from now. Should/ will Google alert Gmail users about their (future) cog­ni­tive sta­tus? Study: Arti­fi­cial intel­li­gence pro­gram iden­ti­fies lin­guis­tic mark­ers that pre­dict, with 70% accu­ra­cy, who gets Alzheimer’s Dis­ease years later

#3. Sim­i­lar to what hap­pened to Thync back in 2016, Halo Neu­ro­science strug­gled to com­mer­cial­ize tDCS as a non-med­ical device and the tech­nol­o­gy is being repur­posed for clin­i­cal use. Neu­ro­mod­u­la­tion devel­op­er Halo Neu­ro­science clos­es its doors; Flow Neu­ro­science acquires assets

#4. Here you have a cou­ple recent meta-analy­ses sug­gest­ing a grow­ing adop­tion in the near future of web-based, and increas­ing­ly per­son­al­ized, inter­ven­tions. Grow­ing research points to expand­ing adop­tion of online cog­ni­tive behav­ioral ther­a­pies, both guid­ed and unguided

#5. “If there is any­thing we’ve seen out of this year, it’s real­ly become that fourth pil­lar of ben­e­fits for every employ­er out there. Every­one has med­ical, den­tal and vision. Men­tal health has now real­ly become that fourth pil­lar of ben­e­fits for all employ­ers.” — Alyson Wat­son, CEO and founder of Mod­ern Health. Four trends accel­er­at­ing men­tal health inno­va­tion in the COVID/ post-COVID era

#6. “Access to men­tal health­care is a human right that shouldn’t be buried by stig­ma, lack of access, or afford­abil­i­ty.” — Oliv­er Har­ri­son, CEO of Koa Health. Dig­i­tal men­tal health start-up Koa Health rais­es €30M to accel­er­ate growth in Europe and the US

#7. “Just as the viral pan­dem­ic has accel­er­at­ed vac­cine devel­op­ment, this glob­al cri­sis has brought togeth­er men­tal health experts from the pub­lic and pri­vate sec­tor around the world to address what is sure­ly a sec­ond pan­dem­ic trig­gered by loss, anx­i­ety, and social iso­la­tion” — Thomas Insel, MD, co-founder of Human­est Care. Sur­vey finds con­cerns AND hope to address grow­ing men­tal health needs due to the covid pandemic

#8. Can biofeed­back-based videogames help chil­dren bet­ter man­age stress? Mag­el­lan Health and Might­i­er secure $2 mil­lion NIMH grant to investigate

#9. “The Organ­i­sa­tion for the Review of Care and Health Apps (ORCHA) has reviewed almost 600 men­tal health apps … only 29.6% meet qual­i­ty thresh­olds” The land­scape of dig­i­tal men­tal health apps: huge unmet needs, qual­i­ty con­cerns, app stores asked to ensure transparency

#10. Final­ly, an idea out there worth explor­ing … Next: Psy­che­del­ic-assist­ed psychotherapy?

Have a healthy and stim­u­lat­ing month of March,

The Sharp­Brains Team

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Filed Under: Brain/ Mental Health, SharpBrains Monthly eNewsletter, Technology & Innovation Tagged With: behavioral, biofeedback, Brain Teasers, cognitive, Halo Neuroscience, Humanest Care, Koa Health, mental healthcare, Mightier, Modern Health, neuroplasticity, psychedelics, Psychotherapy, tDCS, therapies, Thync

Next: Psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy?

February 4, 2021 by SharpBrains

How ecsta­sy and psilo­cy­bin are shak­ing up psy­chi­a­try (Nature):

… The Impe­r­i­al study was one of a spate of clin­i­cal tri­als launched over the past few years using illic­it psy­che­del­ic drugs such as psilo­cy­bin, lyser­gic acid diethy­lamide (LSD) and MDMA (3,4‑methylenedioxymethamphetamine, also known as mol­ly or ecsta­sy) to treat men­tal-health dis­or­ders, gen­er­al­ly with the close guid­ance of a psy­chi­a­trist or psy­chother­a­pist. The idea has been around for decades — or cen­turies in some cul­tures — but the momen­tum has picked up dras­ti­cal­ly over the past few years as investors and sci­en­tists have begun to cham­pi­on the approach again. [Read more…] about Next: Psy­che­del­ic-assist­ed psychotherapy?

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Filed Under: Brain/ Mental Health Tagged With: Books, lysergic acid diethylamide, MDMA, mental health disorders, psilocybin, psychedelic, psychiatrist, psychotherapist, Psychotherapy

Update: Understanding Brain Health via Cosmological Health, and vice versa

December 29, 2020 by SharpBrains

LEFT: SECTION OF CEREBELLUM, WITH MAGNIFICATION FACTOR 40X, OBTAINED WITH ELECTRON MICROSCOPY (DR. E. ZUNARELLI, UNIVERSITY HOSPITAL OF MODENA); RIGHT: SECTION OF A COSMOLOGICAL SIMULATION, WITH AN EXTENSION OF 300 MILLION LIGHT-YEARS ON EACH SIDE (VAZZA ET AL. 2019 A&A). CREDIT: UNIVERSITY OF BOLOGNA

Wel­come to a new edi­tion of Sharp­Brains’ e‑newsletter, fea­tur­ing fas­ci­nat­ing find­ings, books and resources for life­long brain health.

#1. “The human brain (sec­tion; left image above) func­tions thanks to its wide neu­ronal net­work that is deemed to con­tain approx­i­mate­ly 69 bil­lion neu­rons. On the oth­er hand, the observ­able uni­verse (sec­tion sim­u­la­tion; right image) can count upon a cos­mic web of at least 100 bil­lion galax­ies. With­in both sys­tems, only 30% of their mass­es are com­posed of galax­ies and neu­rons. With­in both sys­tems, galax­ies and neu­rons arrange them­selves in long fil­a­ments or nodes between the fil­a­ments. Final­ly, with­in both sys­tems, 70% of the dis­tri­b­u­tion of mass or ener­gy is com­posed of com­po­nents play­ing an appar­ent­ly pas­sive role: water in the brain and dark ener­gy in the observ­able Uni­verse.” Under­stand­ing Brain Health via Cos­mo­log­i­cal Health, and vice versa

#2. One very smart and gen­er­ous brain to bright­en your day: Indi­an teacher Ran­jitsinh Disale wins annu­al $1M Glob­al Teacher Prize; shares half with 9 finalists

#3. “Of all the qual­i­ties par­ents can cul­ti­vate in their chil­dren, hope and opti­mism are the most pre­cious. We can nur­ture hope and opti­mism in our kids by demon­strat­ing that we always have some con­trol over our envi­ron­ment and our­selves. The future isn’t a tide that’s going to crush us, it’s a wave we’re a part of.” — Made­line Levine, author of Ready or Not. Three favorite 2020 books on par­ent­ing and men­tal health

#4. A superb mem­oir on becom­ing a psy­chother­a­py pio­neer and best­selling writer: Becom­ing Myself, by Irvin D. Yalom

#5. This sur­vey of 2500 fam­i­lies about what ADHD treat­ments seem to work/ not work finds that 49% of par­ents report Exer­cise to be ‘Extreme­ly or Very Effec­tive;’ above any oth­er treatment.

#6. On the dan­gers of “pro­duc­tiz­ing” lifestyle guide­lines that help build brain reserve and delay cog­ni­tive prob­lems; Buy­er beware: The sto­ry of a pricey and “cre­den­tialled” pro­gram to end Alzheimer’s Disease

#7. Now, giv­en that “In a new McK­in­sey report, 62% of employ­ees con­sid­er men­tal health issues a top chal­lenge,” it is good to see grow­ing resources and approach­es aimed at address­ing the chal­lenge: Calm rais­es $75 mil­lion, expands into cor­po­rate men­tal health and wellness

#8. And, step by step, dig­i­tal ther­a­peu­tics are going main­stream: Click Ther­a­peu­tics rais­es $30 mil­lion in debt to advance com­mer­cial­iza­tion of smok­ing ces­sa­tion app Clickotine

#9. Nev­er two with­out three: Pear Ther­a­peu­tics rais­es $80M; finds cost sav­ings of $2,150 per patient with opi­oid use disorder

#10. Final­ly, we asked our team and trust­ed advi­sors to com­pile a list of ideas to stay sane and healthy in the months ahead, pri­or­i­tiz­ing habits shown to pro­mote brain health, resilience and pos­i­tive neu­ro­plas­tic­i­ty: Enjoy these 3 New Year Res­o­lu­tions and 36 Ideas for a Hap­pi­er & Health­i­er 2021

Wish­ing you a safe, healthy and hap­py New Year

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Filed Under: Brain/ Mental Health, SharpBrains Monthly eNewsletter, Technology & Innovation Tagged With: adhd, ADHD-Treatment, Books, brain, brain health, brain-reserve, Calm, Click Therapeutics, cognitive, cognitive problems, digital therapeutics, mental health, Neurons, neuroplasticity, Pear Therapeutics, Psychotherapy, resilience, treatments

On becoming a psychotherapy pioneer and bestselling writer: A fantastic memoir by, and window into, the unique mind of Irvin D. Yalom

December 23, 2020 by Alvaro Fernandez

If you’re inter­est­ed in the life of the mind, here you have an awe­some win­dow into a unique mind — a pro­found mem­oir by best­selling writer and psy­chother­a­py pio­neer Irvin D. Yalom. It was pub­lished back in 2017 but, like good wine, it has aged well and is more rel­e­vant today than ever.

Irvin D. Yalom, MD, is an emer­i­tus pro­fes­sor of psy­chi­a­try at Stan­ford Uni­ver­si­ty and a psy­chi­a­trist in pri­vate prac­tice in San Fran­cis­co. He is the author of many books, includ­ing Love’s Exe­cu­tion­er, The The­o­ry and Prac­tice in Group Psy­chother­a­py, and When Niet­zsche Wept. He lives with his wife in Palo Alto, California.

Descrip­tion: Irvin D. Yalom has made a career of inves­ti­gat­ing the lives of oth­ers. In this pro­found mem­oir, he turns his writ­ing and his ther­a­peu­tic eye on him­self. He opens his sto­ry with a night­mare: He is twelve, and is rid­ing his bike past the home of an acne-scarred girl. Like every morn­ing, he calls out, hop­ing to befriend her, “Hel­lo Measles!” But in his dream, the girl’s father makes Yalom under­stand that his dai­ly greet­ing had hurt her. For Yalom, this was the birth of empa­thy; he would not for­get the les­son. [Read more…] about On becom­ing a psy­chother­a­py pio­neer and best­selling writer: A fan­tas­tic mem­oir by, and win­dow into, the unique mind of Irvin D. Yalom

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Filed Under: Education & Lifelong Learning Tagged With: book, Irvin D. Yalom, memoir, mind, psychiatry, Psychotherapy

Neuromodulation device Relivion gets FDA clearance to help patients with major depression who don’t benefit from antidepressant medications

August 12, 2020 by SharpBrains

Neu­rolief wins FDA break­through nod for wear­able neu­ro­mod for depres­sion (Mass Device):

Neu­rolief announced today that it received FDA break­through device des­ig­na­tion for its Reliv­ion DP sys­tem for treat­ing major depression.

Reliv­ion is a wear­able, non-inva­sive, mul­ti-chan­nel brain neu­ro­mod­u­la­tion device designed as an adjunc­tive treat­ment to phar­ma­ceu­ti­cal man­age­ment of major depres­sive dis­or­der (MDD) in adults who haven’t expe­ri­enced sat­is­fac­to­ry improve­ment from anti­de­pres­sant med­ica­tions, accord­ing to a news release. [Read more…] about Neu­ro­mod­u­la­tion device Reliv­ion gets FDA clear­ance to help patients with major depres­sion who don’t ben­e­fit from anti­de­pres­sant medications

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Filed Under: Brain/ Mental Health, Technology & Innovation Tagged With: antidepressant medications, breakthrough device, depression, FDA, Major Depressive Disorder, medication, Neurolief, neuromod, neuromodulation, Psychotherapy, Relivion DP, treating major depression, treatments, wearable

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