3 Emerging Technologies That Revolutionize Mental Health Treatment

1. 3 Emerging Technologies That Revolutionize Mental Health Treatment

2. Technologies That Revolutionize Mental Health Treatment From PTSD to depression, medical treatment of mental illness has come a long way. The journey from asylums and "hysteria" to modern SSRIs and therapy has been one of the most eventful journeys in the history of medicine. Still, science continues to push the boundaries on treatment. Thanks to the tremendous advancement in technology, today there are numerous tried-and-true methods to treat patients that won't be perfected for decades. Technology, including virtual reality, smart brain scans, and magnetic fields have revolutionized the way of treating mental illness.

3. Virtual Reality Virtual reality has something more than science fiction and video games, said Alan Oviatt. Stratospherically, the technology has improved and its usage in today`s immersive environments has had psychologists involved specifically for helping people with anxiety disorders, phobias, and PTSD. VR advanced therapy a lot while helping patients in cutting the costs of treatment. With VR, a therapist doesn't need to accompany a client on a trip to a crowded shopping center. However, a lot of the potential benefits depend on combining high-quality VR named as "translational intervention," or the process by which medical and scientific discoveries are "translated" into real-world applications. In other words, while virtual reality is full of potential, the way it's implemented in therapy could have drastic effects on how effective it is.

4. Virtual Reality

5. Intelligent Brain Scans With the improvement of modern psychiatric medicine, people with mental health problems get an advantage of determining what works for them and which has the fewest side effects. According to Alan Herbert Oviatt, antidepressants can be considered as the best example, incorporating numerous types - from SSRIs to tricyclics. People with depression should try different types on several dosages before settling on one that creates stability. In order to refine this process, it has been a subject of a lot of research.

6. Magnetic Fields Alan Herbert Oviatt said, “Brain stimulation treatments for mental health benefit have been the focus of science for a while”. Scientists discovered earlier that stimulating parts of the brain directly using electrodes likely to aid with treatment-resistant depression, for instance. But what about minimal invasive that could do the same thing? New technology from the University of Buffalo might be the answer. The researchers introduced a technique called magneto-thermal stimulation that enables "activate" very specific parts of the brain. The process initiates via injecting magnetic nanoparticles into specific parts of the brains of live mice. Then subjected them to an alternating magnetic field. In mice, the researchers were able to stimulate areas to make the animals run and turn around. The scientific press has called it the "remote-controlled mice" phenomenon, but that's not all this could be helpful for. It's a big leap forward for people who hope to one day be able to cure psychosis, schizophrenia and other severe mental illnesses by manipulating specific neurons in the brain, without damaging other parts.