Tag: Psychiatry

Ball Changes Shape with Breath for Mental Health Management

Researchers at the University of Bath in the United Kingdom have developed a shape-shifting ball that can inflate and deflate in response to someone’s breath. The idea is an advancement of many techniques designed to help people de-stress and manage their mental health, which all focus on awareness of the breath. For instance, mindfulness meditatio (Read more...)

EarliPoint Evaluation System for ASD Diagnosis: Interview with Tom Ressemann, CEO of EarliTec Dx

EarliTec Dx, a medtech company based in Georgia, has developed the EarliPoint Evaluation System for Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). This common neurodevelopmental condition is often overlooked in affected children, leading to a lack of early intervention and care. Part of the issue is a lack of access to specialists who can diagnose the condition. (Read more...)

Automated Mass Spec Technique to Detect Antidepressants

Scientists at Brown University have designed an automated liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) system that allows clinicians to rapidly and easily process patient samples to determine levels of antidepressant drugs in the body. Getting the correct dose of antidepressant drugs into the bloodstream is important to ensure efficacy (Read more...)

Fingertip Sensor Measures Lithium Levels in Sweat

Researchers at UCLA have developed a fingertip sensor that can rapidly provide data on the levels of lithium in the body. Used as a treatment for bipolar disorder and depression, lithium requires very accurate and sensitive dosing, with too little providing no therapeutic benefit but slightly too much potentially leading to unwanted side-effects. A (Read more...)

Wearable Tracks Mental States

Researchers at New York University have created a wearable system that can measure electrodermal activity, a property of the skin that is influenced by mental states, such as stress or excitement. The system is called Multimodal Intelligent Noninvasive brain state Decoder for Wearable AdapTive Closed-loop arcHitectures (MINDWATCH) and it can assess (Read more...)

Smartphone App to Diagnose Neurological Disorders

A team at the University of California San Diego has developed a smartphone app that can precisely measure changes in pupil size as a potential method to assess a variety of neurological conditions and disorders, including Alzheimer’s disease and ADHD. The technique relies on the near-infrared cameras that newer smartphones use for facial rec (Read more...)

Microchip Nanosensor Detects Stress Hormone from Drop of Blood

Researchers at Rutgers University have developed a microchip that can perform real-time measurements of stress hormone levels in a drop of blood. The technology could provide a replacement for bulky and expensive lab tests for such hormones, and allow patients to monitor their stress levels more easily. The chip includes tiny wells that contain ant (Read more...)

Monitoring Cognitive Performance Using Smart Devices: Interview with Maha Radhakrishnan, CMO, Biogen

Biogen, a medtech company based in Massachusetts, has announced that is partnering with Apple in a research study to determine if it is possible to identify and develop biomarkers of cognitive decline, using data from smart devices, including the iPhone and Apple Watch. Biogen has a neuroscience focus, and the company hopes that it may […]