therapeutic

Mapping ‘psychedelic trips’ in the brain to better direct their therapeutic effects

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Image cred­it: Shutterstock

For the past sev­er­al decades, psy­che­delics have been wide­ly stig­ma­tized as dan­ger­ous ille­gal drugs. But a recent surge of aca­d­e­m­ic research into their use to treat psy­chi­atric con­di­tions is spurring a recent shift in pub­lic opinion.

Psy­che­delics are psy­chotrop­ic drugs: sub­stances that affect your men­tal state. Oth­er types of psy­chotrop­ics include anti­de­pres­sants and anti-anx­i­ety med­ica­tions. Psy­che­delics and oth­er types of hal­lu­cino­gens, how­ev­er, are unique in their abil­i­ty to tem­porar­i­ly induce intense hal­lu­ci­na­tions, emo­tions and dis­rup­tions of self-aware­ness. [Read more…] about Map­ping ‘psy­che­del­ic trips’ in the brain to bet­ter direct their ther­a­peu­tic effects

Pear Therapeutics raises $80M; finds cost savings of $2,150 per patient with opioid use disorder

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Pear Ther­a­peu­tics rais­es $80M in push for reim­burse­ment (Med­C­i­ty News):

Pear Ther­a­peu­tics raised $80 mil­lion in fund­ing, which it plans to use as part of a push for cov­er­age of its dig­i­tal ther­a­peu­tics. The Boston-based com­pa­ny has three FDA-cleared prod­ucts, includ­ing dig­i­tal ther­a­peu­tics for sub­stance use dis­or­der, opi­oid use dis­or­der, and most recent­ly, insom­nia. [Read more…] about Pear Ther­a­peu­tics rais­es $80M; finds cost sav­ings of $2,150 per patient with opi­oid use disorder

New book on how “Forest Bathing” can promote physical and mental health

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– The Kumano Kodo trail in Japan

“Nature deficit dis­or­der” is a mod­ern afflic­tion. With more peo­ple liv­ing in cities, work­ing in high-rise office build­ings, and becom­ing addict­ed to their innu­mer­able elec­tron­ic devices, many of us are indeed expe­ri­enc­ing a nature deficit. This is true for chil­dren and adults alike.

In his new book, For­est Bathing: How Trees Can Help You Find Health and Hap­pi­ness, Japan­ese med­ical doc­tor and researcher Qing Li presents some sober­ing sta­tis­tics: By 2050, accord­ing to the Unit­ed Nations Pop­u­la­tion Divi­sion, three quar­ters of the world’s peo­ple will live in cities. Even now, the aver­age Amer­i­can spends 93 per­cent of the time indoors, and [Read more…] about New book on how “For­est Bathing” can pro­mote phys­i­cal and men­tal health

Study: Psychedelics can promote neural plasticity in the prefrontal cortex and expand pathways for mental health

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– Cred­it: Cell Reports 2018 23, 3170–3182DOI: (10.1016/j.celrep.2018.05.022). Copy­right © 2018 The Authors

Psy­che­delics in Neu­rol­o­gy: Poten­tial for Improv­ing Neu­ro­plas­tic­i­ty (Neu­rol­o­gy­Times):

“Back in the 1950s, research was prov­ing that psy­che­del­ic agents could be effec­tive in the treat­ment of var­i­ous neu­ropsy­chi­atric dis­or­ders. Unfor­tu­nate­ly, just as sci­ence was explor­ing their ben­e­fi­cial effects, the coun­ter­cul­ture was explor­ing and embrac­ing their effects. Slow­ly but sure­ly, psy­che­delics were asso­ci­at­ed with rebel­lious youth and the tumul­tuous anti-war move­ment. As a result, the gov­ern­ment shut down most of the research.

The 1990s saw renewed inter­est in psy­che­del­ic com­pounds as a means to address neu­ropsy­chi­atric dis­or­ders. Research explored the ben­e­fits of MDMA and ket­a­mine to treat mood dis­or­ders and post­trau­mat­ic stress dis­or­der. Now, a new study sheds even more light on the promise these agents might pro­vide. [Read more…] about Study: Psy­che­delics can pro­mote neur­al plas­tic­i­ty in the pre­frontal cor­tex and expand path­ways for men­tal health

The future of personalized brain stimulation via enhanced cognitive-emotive profiles: Key neurotechnology patent #31

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cognitive-emotive profiles
– Illus­tra­tive image from U.S. Patent No. 7,460,903

Today we high­light a fas­ci­nat­ing 2008 patent describ­ing how to com­bine a num­ber of neu­rotech­nolo­gies (EEG feed­back, TMS brain stim­u­la­tion, monitoring/ train­ing soft­ware) to help “upgrade” one’s cog­ni­tive-emo­tive profile.

U.S. Patent No. 7,460,903: Method and sys­tem for a real time adap­tive sys­tem for effect­ing changes in cog­ni­tive-emo­tive profiles

  • Inventor(s): Jaime A. Pine­da, Bren­dan Z. Allison
  • Tech­nol­o­gy Cat­e­go­ry: Hybrid
  • Issue Date: Decem­ber 2, 2008

SharpBrains’ Take:

The ‘903 patent describes cou­pling neu­romon­i­tor­ing with brain activ­i­ty induc­ing tech­nolo­gies by com­bin­ing tech­niques includ­ing EEG brain­waves, TMS devices, and a set of soft­ware tools to enhance brain func­tion­al­i­ty in adap­tive and durable ways, via upgrad­ed indi­vid­ual cog­ni­tive-emo­tive pro­files. [Read more…] about The future of per­son­al­ized brain stim­u­la­tion via enhanced cog­ni­tive-emo­tive pro­files: Key neu­rotech­nol­o­gy patent #31

Next: Virtual reality therapies to help refine and spread mental health care

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Vir­tu­al real­i­ty ther­a­py is com­ing (The Wash­ing­ton Post):

“Tech­nol­o­gists have called 2016 the year of vir­tu­al real­i­ty [Read more…] about Next: Vir­tu­al real­i­ty ther­a­pies to help refine and spread men­tal health care