Study: Personalized, closed-loop neuromodulation can (one day) become a “pacemaker for the brain”

Treat­ing Severe Depres­sion with On-Demand Brain Stim­u­la­tion (UCSF press release): UCSF Health physi­cians have suc­cess­ful­ly treat­ed a patient with severe depres­sion by tap­ping into the spe­cif­ic brain cir­cuit involved in depres­sive brain pat­terns and reset­ting them using the equiv­a­lent of a pace­mak­er for the brain. “This study points the way to a new par­a­digm that is…

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Update: Four tips to practice good mental hygiene during the coronavirus outbreak

__ Time for a new edi­tion of Sharp­Brains’ e‑newsletter, fea­tur­ing this time 14 time­ly news and resources for men­tal health and brain health inno­va­tion. First of all, let’s remain safe, healthy, and cen­tered dur­ing the cur­rent health cri­sis by fol­low­ing these tips pro­vid­ed by the Greater Good Sci­ence Cen­ter at UC Berke­ley: 1. Stay calm and…

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Could technology help cure depression among older adults? (Short answer: Yes)

___ Why tech­nol­o­gy — not med­ica­tion — is the future of treat­ing old­er adults with depres­sion (McK­night’s Long-term Care News): “The go-to treat­ment for many cas­es of depres­sion is med­ica­tion. Unfor­tu­nate­ly, this treat­ment option can cause as many issues as the prob­lem it is try­ing to solve. Anti­de­pres­sants can put res­i­dents at greater risk of falls,…

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Study finds limited benefits from cognitive bias modification (CBM) training, calls for further research

Could cog­ni­tive inter­ven­tions be use­ful in treat­ing depres­sion? (Sci­ence News): “A new study by exper­i­men­tal psy­chol­o­gists from the Uni­ver­si­ty of Bris­tol has exam­ined whether cog­ni­tive bias mod­i­fi­ca­tion (CBM) for facial inter­pre­ta­tion, a dig­i­tal health inter­ven­tion that changes our per­cep­tion for emo­tion­al expres­sions from neg­a­tive to pos­i­tive, might be use­ful in treat­ing depression.

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Challenge: How to spur meaningful, targeted & safe adoption of emerging neurotechnologies

A cap that treats depres­sion? Check the sci­ence before get­ting excit­ed (The Guardian): “Yes­ter­day, an arti­cle in the Entre­pre­neurs sec­tion of the Guardian pur­port­ed to reveal a “cloth cap that could help treat depres­sion”. This claim has caused some alarm in the neu­ro­science and men­tal health fields, so it’s impor­tant to look a lit­tle more…

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Therapy or antidepressants? Coming soon: Brain activity “fingerprints” to personalize depression treatments

. To Treat Depres­sion, Drugs or Ther­a­py? (The New York Times): “Until recent­ly, many experts thought that your clin­i­cian could lit­er­al­ly pick any anti­de­pres­sant or type of psy­chother­a­py at ran­dom because, with a few clin­i­cal excep­tions, there was lit­tle evi­dence to favor one treat­ment over anoth­er for a giv­en patient

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