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Worrying and the Aging Brain (Dana Foundation):

Over the past decade, scientists and clinicians have noted a significant association between common mental health conditions and accelerated brain aging—the changes to brain structure, physiology, and function that are thought to lead to later cognitive decline. Both depression and anxiety disorders, for example, are strongly correlated with the development of dementias including Alzheimer’s disease later in life, yet it has been unclear why. Neuroscientists and gerontologists around the globe have diligently worked to investigate which particular symptoms might contribute to age-related cognitive decline.

New research from the University of Pittsburgh, using a machine learning model to predict a person’s “brain age,” suggests that excessive worrying and rumination may influence the speed of neurodegeneration and the memory and attention deficits that come along with it. Keep reading the excellent article Worrying and the Aging Brain over at Dana Foundation’s website.

Recent Study:

Affective … Read the rest

Emotion-detection software start-up Affectiva acquired for $73.5M (TechCrunch):

Smart Eye, the publicly traded Swedish company that supplies driver monitoring systems for a dozen automakers, has acquired emotion-detection software startup Affectiva for $73.5 million in a cash-and-stock deal.

Affectiva, which spun out of the MIT Media Lab in 2009, has developed software that can detect and understand human emotion, which Smart Eye is keen to combine with its own AI-based eye-tracking technology. The companies’ founders see an opportunity to expand beyond driver monitoring systems — tech that is often used in conjunction with advanced driver assistance systems to track and measure awareness — and into the rest of the vehicle. Together, the technology could help them break into the emerging “interior sensing” market, which can be used to monitor the entire cabin of a vehicle and deliver services in response to the occupant’s emotional state … The opportunity will initially be

Welcome to a new edition of SharpBrains’ e‑newsletter, featuring eleven new research findings and innovative resources for lifelong cognitive and brain health.

#1. Debate: Are depression and dementia two sides of the same coin? And, if they are, how to best approach treatment?

#2. Either way, the earlier the better, but it’s never too late: New book outlines the five lifestyle pillars to “build a better brain at any age”

#3. “If I were a cardiologist evaluating a patient’s chest pain, for instance, I would speak with the patient, but then I would listen to their heart and measure their pulse and blood pressure. I might order an electrocardiogram or a cardiac stress test, tools that weren’t available a century ago. Because I’m a psychiatrist, however, I evaluate patients in precisely the same way that my predecessors did in 1920…” Reading Our Minds: New book issues strong call to action to … Read the rest

Akili raises $110m to build its digital therapeutics pipeline (pharmaforum):

EndeavorRx became the first and so far only approved prescription video game treatment in the US when it was cleared by the FDA last year to treat attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and has also been given a green light in Europe.

It is also being tested for other indications including fuzzy thinking in COVID-19 survivors, a condition sometimes known as ‘brain fog’.

The new funding, which is accompanied by a $50 million loan facility, is earmarked for the continued rollout of the app as well as Akili’s pipeline of prescription digital therapeutics for “a range of chronic and acute cognitive disorders,” said the Boston-based company.

The Series D was led by Neuberger Berman Funds and included a string of other investors, including venture capital arms of drugmakers like Shionogi, Amgen and Merck KGaA … Other programmes in the R&D phase

Wysa’s AI-Guided Mental Health Platform Closes $5.5M Series A to Bridge the Gap in Employee Mental Health (press release):

“Wysa, the leading global AI-powered mental health platform, today, during Mental Health Awareness Month, announced a $5.5M Series A financing round led by W Health Ventures, a Boston-based digital health investor. Others participating in the round include the Google Assistant Investment program, and existing investors pi Ventures and Kae Capital. Wysa will use this capital to support its offering to employers who want to expand their mental health benefits, as well as scale up Wysa’s sales team and therapist network.

“We are impressed with Wysa’s uncompromising clinical safety and unparalleled patient-centricity. It maintains a near-perfect rating from approximately 100,000 reviews resulting from over 100 million conversations,” said Dr. Pankaj Jethwani, Executive Vice President at W Health Ventures. “As we enter the second year of the pandemic, so many people are struggling

Every seven seconds, someone in the world is diagnosed with dementia. A typical case that I often see in my practice is as follows: A 76-year-old woman has a two-year history of progressive worsening of short-term memory and cognitive decline. She can’t recall the names of her grandchildren and is devastated by her deteriorating abilities.

However, this is not the first time in her life that she has had feelings of loss and despair. Over the past 30 years, she has intermittently struggled with depression and anxiety. Her family has many questions: Does she have dementia or Alzheimer’s? Could her depression have led to a dementia diagnosis? Is it only depression and not dementia? These are all good questions and the collective answer to them is “yes.”

Dementia and depression

Dementia and depression are the two dreaded “D” diagnoses that are increasingly robbing our aging population of health and happiness … Read the rest

Teladoc builds out mental healthcare services with myStrength Complete (MobiHealthNews):

Virtual care giant Teladoc is building out its behavioral health services through its latest program, myStrength Complete.

The new offering is designed to give users a single integrated mental healthcare experience. It combines the app-based models of care from myStrength with Teladoc’s on-demand therapists and psychiatrists … The myStrength platform uses evidence-based clinical models such as cognitive behavioral therapy, positive psychology and mindfulness to help treat behavioral health conditions such as depression, anxiety, insomnia and substance use disorder.

The company was bought by Livongo in 2019 and was then absorbed in Teladoc’s acquisition of Livongo last year.

myStrength Complete will be available to individuals through their health plans or employers in July, Teladoc said in its announcement.

The Announcement:

Teladoc Health Launches “myStrength Complete” As First Unified Mental Health Care Experience (press release):

Teladoc Health, Inc. (NYSE: TDOC) today announced

The First Phase 3 Success for Psychedelics Will Pave the Way for an Industry (Barron’s):

Post-traumatic stress disorder is a crippling, hard-to-treat psychiatric affliction. America spends billions of dollars yearly just on the veterans who suffer from PTSD. So it’s heartening to see the report of a promising new treatment, published Monday in Nature Medicine.

In Monday’s report, an international team of researchers describe their test of a treatment combining psychotherapy with doses of MDMA—the illegal drug popularly known as Ecstasy or Molly. The MDMA-assisted therapy was dramatically effective at reducing PTSD symptoms and improving daily functioning in the 42 treated participants, when compared with the 37 participants who got psychotherapy and a placebo drug.

Two months after their last drug-assisted session, two-thirds of the MDMA-treated patients no longer met the diagnosis for PTSD, compared with one third of those treated with placebos … The Nature authors speculate that MDMA-assisted

Like many people over 60, I sometimes lose my keys or forget the names of favorite films. When I do, it makes me wonder: Is this the beginning of cognitive decline? Or, worse, am I fated to follow in the footsteps of my mother, who died of Lewy-body dementia in her 70s?

According to neurosurgeon Sanjay Gupta, CNN medical correspondent and author of the new book Keep Sharp: Building a Better Brain at Any Age, the answer is no. Forgetfulness is normal at all ages, and your genes don’t doom you to dementia. What’s important is taking care of your brain in the best way possible, he argues.

“You can affect your brain’s thinking and memory far more than you realize or appreciate, and the vast majority of people haven’t even begun to try,” he writes.

Gupta distills results from hundreds of research studies to help readers understand what’s known … Read the rest

Why an evidence-driven approach is the best way for businesses to support workplace mental health (World Economic Forum):

Mental health has never been higher on the agenda for businesses. It is easy to see why, as even prior to COVID-19, anxiety and depression were estimated to cost the global economy over $1 trillion every year in lost productivity. The exodus from offices in 2020 has presented further challenges and raised big questions about future ways of working … The absence of a deep and robust evidence base for approaches to supporting workplace mental health is a problem and can lead to well-intentioned businesses making critical and sensitive decisions in the dark. At best, such interventions are working and we just don’t know why or, at worst, they could be causing harm to workforces…

Wellcome, in partnership with the World Economic Forum, is publishing new research on workplace … Read the rest