schizophrenia

Does marijuana use cause schizophrenia? (unclear, but unlikely)

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Does Mar­i­jua­na Use Cause Schiz­o­phre­nia? (The New York Times):

“… The con­cern is focused large­ly on the link between heavy usage and psy­chosis in young peo­ple. Doc­tors first sus­pect­ed a link some 70 years ago, and the evi­dence has only accu­mu­lat­ed since then. In a forth­com­ing book, “Tell Your Chil­dren,” Alex Beren­son, a for­mer Times reporter, argues that legal­iza­tion is putting a gen­er­a­tion at high­er risk of schiz­o­phre­nia and oth­er psy­chot­ic syn­dromes. Crit­ics, includ­ing lead­ing researchers, have called the argu­ment overblown, and unfaith­ful to the sci­ence [Read more…] about Does mar­i­jua­na use cause schiz­o­phre­nia? (unclear, but unlikely)

Evidence review: Cognitive training & remediation works, especially in schizophrenia and healthy aging

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Evi­dence That Com­put­er­ized Cog­ni­tive Train­ing Works (Psy­chol­o­gy Today)

“Many peo­ple use com­put­er­ized cog­ni­tive train­ing with the hopes of pre­vent­ing men­tal decline or improv­ing men­tal per­for­mance. But do these brain train­ing games actu­al­ly work?  [Read more…] about Evi­dence review: Cog­ni­tive train­ing & reme­di­a­tion works, espe­cial­ly in schiz­o­phre­nia and healthy aging

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

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

Dr. Michael Merzenich: To harness Neuroplasticity for cognitive enhancement, we need to think “Fitness” more than “Games”

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KavliPrize-Neuro(Edi­tor’s Note: In order to help read­ers famil­iar­ize them­selves with the work and think­ing of Dr. Michael Merzenich, one of the win­ners of the 2016 Kavli Prize in Neu­ro­science for ground­break­ing work on neu­ro­plas­tic­i­ty, we are con­dens­ing and repub­lish­ing the com­pre­hen­sive con­ver­sa­tion that Dr. Merzenich and Alvaro Fer­nan­dez had in 2009, in prepa­ra­tion for the inau­gur­al Sharp­Brains Vir­tu­al Sum­mit.)

Dr. Michael Merzenich, Emer­i­tus Pro­fes­sor at UCSF, is a lead­ing pio­neer in brain plas­tic­i­ty research. In the late 1980s, Dr. Merzenich was on the team that invent­ed the cochlear implant. In 1996, he was the found­ing CEO of Sci­en­tif­ic Learn­ing Cor­po­ra­tion, and in 2004 became co-founder and [Read more…] about Dr. Michael Merzenich: To har­ness Neu­ro­plas­tic­i­ty for cog­ni­tive enhance­ment, we need to think “Fit­ness” more than “Games”

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