Last week, Meru Health, a digital mental health clinic, announced the launch of a wearable to capture biofeedback, including heart rate variability (HRV), during mental health exercises. The clip-on wearable is affixed to an individual’s ear while they complete specific exercises, like breathing practices, directed by Meru’s platform. The goal is to show users a […]
Tag: Psychiatry
Physician Well-being Declining? It’s the System, Stupid
Dr Peter Yellowlees describes how healthcare systems fail physicians, and how we can start to make changes. Medscape Psychiatry
Sensor Reads Signs of Oncoming Aggression in Autism
Many people who suffer from autism experience periods when they become aggressive, something that tends to come out of the blue. Those taking care of such folks have a hard time managing such episodes, particularly because there’s no warning and there’s no time to take mitigating actions. Now, researchers at Northeastern University have developed a […]
Tourette Syndrome Treated with Functional MRI
Researchers at Yale University have for the first time showed that it is possible to control the symptoms of Tourette Syndrome using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). The researchers recruited twenty one 11 to 19 year-olds and used real-time fMRI neurofeedback (rt-fMRI-NF), a technology that lets patients monitor their own brain activity, to control the […]
Smart Wrist Band Helps People with Affective Disorders to Monitor Emotions
Researchers at the University of Lancaster have developed a smart material that can help those with affective disorders, such as anxiety, bi-polar disorder and depression, to monitor their emotions. The smart material, worn as a wrist band, can alert the user to a change in emotion in real time, sometimes even if they have not […]
Women Paint Over Own Avatars to Improve Mental Health
How we view our bodies is often influenced by popular culture and each one of our’s social environment. Young women, in particular, tend to suffer from poor “body image,” which can result in depression, eating disorders, and all kinds of other mental issues. Researchers at the University of Missouri wanted to see whether letting women […]
Machine Learning Predicts Psychosis from Subtle Changes in Word Choices
Researchers from Emory University and Harvard University have developed a machine learning algorithm that can predict an individual’s likelihood for developing psychosis based on their speech patterns. Psychosis may be described as a “break with reality,” including hallucinations and delusions, which may arise from schizophrenia or other mental disorders. The researchers’ work, recently published in […]
Electric Brain Stimulation Shown to Improve Memory Function
Our memories often seem ephemeral, coming and going without any obvious reasons. Researchers at UCLA seem to have come up with a way to bring some memories back that would probably otherwise have gone missing forever. The team relied on transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS), a technology that can direct low energy electricity into specific […]
Electric Brain Stimulation Shown to Improve Memory Function
Our memories often seem ephemeral, coming and going without any obvious reasons. Researchers at UCLA seem to have come up with a way to bring some memories back that would probably otherwise have gone missing forever. The team relied on transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS), a technology that can direct low energy electricity into specific […]
EmoGraphy by Philips Monitors and Predicts Stress: Interview with Navin Natoewal
Philips has recently launched EmoGraphy, a stress management technology to measure someone’s stress levels and then predict them an hour into the future. The company worked out the sensing and algorithm calculation methods, and are now licensing their technology to firms that want to expand it into their devices. We met with Navin Natoewal, the […]
AI Platform for Cognitive Performance Training
Researchers from the National University of Singapore have utilized an AI platform, dubbed CURATE.AI, to help advance cognitive performance on challenging mental tasks. The system works by identifying an individual’s strengths and weaknesses, and curating mental exercises to help them progress most rapidly. The work could have significant implications for future AI-based trainings, counseling, and […]
Hallucinations May Point to Rare, Non-Psychotic Condition
Charles Bonnet syndrome is relatively rare, but due to the aging population, cases may be increasing. Clinicians need to be able to distinguish its hallucinatory symptoms from those of psychosis. Medscape Medical News
Virtual Reality Used to Spot Early Signs of Alzheimer’s Disease
Researchers from the University of Cambridge demonstrated the potential for virtual reality (VR) to serve as a diagnostic tool for diagnosing early Alzheimer’s disease more effectively than existing tests. The research is based on findings that the cells in the brain’s internal “global positioning system” of the entorhinal cortex are the first to be damaged […]
Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation Improves Working Memory
Researchers from Duke University School of Medicine have found that magnetic brain stimulation can help improve working memory. They studied repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS), showing that it improved memory task performance in all ages of adults. Given that individuals with Alzheimer’s will more than double by 2050, rTMS may be a potential form of […]
Simple Test Uses UV Light to Measure Stress Levels
Researchers at the University of Cincinnati have developed a simple biosensor that uses UV light to measure levels of stress hormones in saliva, blood, urine, or sweat. The researchers hope that the test will eventually be available as an at-home test kit that people can use to assess their stress. Other applications include monitoring people […]
NightWare Gets FDA Breakthrough Status for App to Stop Nightmares of PTSD Sufferers
Nightmares are a regular part of life for many people that suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). They can be very hard to control, since dreams seem to have a life of their own and arise in our sleep whether we want them to or not. NightWare, a company based in Minneapolis, Minnesota, just won […]
StimGuide Navigation System for Horizon Transcranial Magnetic Stimulator
Magstim, a company Wales, UK firm that just won FDA clearance for a 3 minute magnetic stimulation protocol for major depression, is releasing a new navigation system for the Horizon transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) platform. The StimGuide was developed specifically for use by clinicians, as opposed to researchers, to help deliver consistent results when treating […]
Brain Controlled-Hearing Aid Separates Voices in a Crowd
When we are at a party and talking to someone, our brain is able to identify a single speaker’s voice and focus our hearing on it, helping us to listen more closely and ignore the other voices nearby. For the millions of people with hearing impairment who use hearing aids, they often lose this ability, […]
Magstim FDA Cleared for 3 Minute Magnetic Stimulation Protocol for Major Depression
The FDA has cleared Magstim, a company based in Wales, to introduce its intermittent Theta Burst Stimulation (iTBS) as a treatment for Major Depressive Disorder. The therapy is available on the company’s Horizon transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) systems and only takes about three minutes per session. Previously, so-called repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) using the […]
Artificial Intelligence to Speed up Alzheimer’s Disease Research
Researchers from UC Davis and UC San Francisco have developed a new artificial intelligence tool to scale up Alzheimer’s research. They have created a deep learning system to identify amyloid plaques in brain slices of patients, spotting specific subtypes of Alzheimer’s disease, in the process enabling precision medicine and faster research. The team used a […]