Big Health Hones Digital Mental Health Therapy With $39M Series B (Crunchbase):
“Startup Big Health believes individuals can improve their mental health through its technology that focuses on cognitive behavioral therapy versus medication or the help of human therapists.
On Thursday it raised $39 million in a Series B financing to advance that objective.
The mental health crisis triggered by COVID-19 is escalating rapidly. One example: When compared to a 2018 survey, U.S. adults are now eight times more likely to meet the criteria for serious mental distress. One-third of Americans report clinically significant symptoms of anxiety or clinical depression, according to a late May 2020 release of Census Bureau data.
While all population groups are affected, this crisis is especially difficult for students, particularly those pushed off college campuses and now facing economic uncertainty; adults with children at home, struggling to juggle work and home-schooling; and front-line health care workers, risking their lives to save others. [Read more…] about Four immediate priorities to flatten the mental distress curve
Videogame Technology Could Bring Biofeedback Therapy to the Living Room (The Wall Street Journal):
For decades, use of biofeedback to help sufferers of anxiety, among other psychological conditions, has largely been limited to clinical settings with expensive—and somewhat tedious—medical equipment. Now, with an assist from developers of virtual-reality games, effective therapeutic biofeedback is becoming more affordable, accessible and engaging.
Tests of a new generation of products that combine advances in wearable biometric sensors with the immersive—and fun—qualities of virtual-reality gaming have increasingly demonstrated effectiveness in helping anxious subjects achieve states of calm, among other therapeutic uses.
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An impaired sense of smell can signal cognitive decline, but ‘smell training’ could help (The Conversation):
“As we age, we often have problems with our ability to smell (called olfactory dysfunction). Older people might not be able to identify an odour or differentiate one odour from another. In some cases they might not be able to detect an odour at all.
Odour identification difficulties are common in people with neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer’s disease [Read more…] about Study finds promise in smell training to harness neuroplasticity and improve brain health in older adults
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Let me ask again…want to feel more Calm, get some Headspace, and practice Mindfulness Daily?
There are apps for that—hundreds of them, besides the three I just mentioned.
These apps make a promise: Rather than investing countless hours and dollars in mindfulness classes or mindfulness-based therapy, we can choose to meditate from the comfort of our smartphones. Users are flocking to mindfulness apps in hopes of cultivating kind attention to their own thoughts and feelings, and of reaping the mental and physical benefits that go along with mindfulness.
But do they work? What does science say about mindfulness apps? [Read more…] about Want to feel more Calm, get some Headspace, and practice Mindfulness Daily?
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
