Mental Health & Substance Use Treatment

Can Deep Brain Stimulation Help Treat Depression and Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD)?

New research suggests that targeted deep brain stimulation (DBS) can potentially improve cognitive control, enhancing treatment options for patients with mental illnesses such as depression and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). Findings recently published in Nature Communications suggest that stimulation applied to the brain's ventral internal capsule and...

Brain Training Holds Promise For Treating Neural System Dysfunctions Behind Psychotic Disorders

Advances in neuropsychological rehabilitation may help remediate psychotic disorders such as schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder and bipolar disorder with psychosis. Research shows that psychotic disorders are caused by malfunctions of neural systems in portions of the brain which hold and process information. Targeted training, designed to improve cognit...

Brain Training Program Improves Memory for Military Personnel with Mild Traumatic Brain Injury

A study conducted at five military and veterans' hospitals found that BrainHQ, a training program developed by BrainFutures Advisor Dr. Michael Merzenich’s company Posit Science, improved cognitive function in military personal and veterans diagnosed with mild Traumatic Brain Injury (mTBI). Symptoms of mTBI include psychiatric disorders, such as depression,...

A Psychedelic Drug May Help Treat PTSD

New research from neuroscientists at Johns Hopkins University suggests that the psychedelic drug MDMA (3,4-methylenedioxy-methamphetamine) may allow brains to re-learn social-reward behaviors in such a way that could be helpful in the treatment of PTSD. The study, reported in Nature, found that MDMA reopens a "critical period" in the brains of mice, making th...

New FDA-Cleared Therapeutic Mobile App to Help Treat Patients with Opioid Use Disorders

For the first time on record, the odds of dying from an opioid overdose is greater than dying in a mobile vehicle crash, according to the National Safety Council. Opioid addiction, a public health emergency that attributed to 42,249 deaths in the U.S. in 2016, has prompted policymakers, researchers and clinicians to join together to devise strategies to co...

Advances in MRI hold great promise for diagnosis and treatment of neurological disorders

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) uses a strong magnetic field and radio waves to create detailed, cross-sectional images of the organs and tissues within the body. This non-invasive method helps identify anomalies of the brain and spinal cord. Hospitals routinely use MRI machines with field strengths of 1.5 Tesla or 3 Tesla (T). The stronger the magnetic ...

Harnessing Virtual Reality to Improve Behavioral and Physical Health Care

Many of us think of Virtual Reality (VR) as a high-tech tool for immersive entertainment experiences or realistic video games. But VR—an interactive computer-generated experience taking place within a simulated environment—also holds great promise for behavioral and physical health care. The purpose of VR is to allow a person to experience and manipulate t...

Military Mental Health: The Invisible Wounds of War

“At the point of my diagnosis [traumatic brain injury], I had 22 concussions, 7 herniated disks and I still have a bullet in my arm and a bunch of other things that [came] with the job. ...I was a very high performer [both] physically and mentally, but I got to a point where my nervous system was failing. I describe it as the check engine light was on. And ...

Using Magnetic and Electrical Stimulation to Heal the Brain

For centuries, scientists have attempted to use electricity to heal the human body and brain. According to The National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS), some of the earliest attempts are shown in carvings from the Fifth Dynasty of Egypt, which depicts an electric fish being used to treat pain. At the BrainFutures conference, Dr. Alvaro ...