America SUPPORT OUR HEROES
Smart Brain Test Helps Stressed Vets
A new way to evaluate soldiers suff ering from PTSD, depression, or other mental illnesses promises more eff ective solutions.
D BY CHRIS GONSALVES
octors are testing an innovative technology to ease the growing epidemic of depression and post-
traumatic stress disorder among the nation’s military veterans and recent- ly returned warriors. Doctors at Walter Reed in Wash-
ington and nearby Fort Belvoir Com- munity Hospital in Virginia will employ a brain-scanning protocol developed by CNS Response Inc. of Aliso Viejo, Calif., to study 2,000 volunteer military patients suff ering from depression, PTSD, and traumat- ic brain injury. The program, set to run
through the end of this year, is already due to be expanded to other sites, including the Veter- ans Administration Healthcare System in Boston. “This could revolutionize
medications. This technology provides an additional data source for treatment options to consider and hopefully will allow us to pick the right medi- cation fi rst without the usual trial and error. We’re always looking for the most eff ective treatment. This test allows us to be a little bit smarter.”
The test begins with a standard electroencephalograph, or EEG, a procedure that has been around in much the same form since the 1930s. trodes
Elec- are
prescribing practice in terms of helping people get the right treatment sooner,” Dr. John Bradley, VA Boston Healthcare System’s chief of psychiatry and former head of the psychiatry department at Walter Reed tells Newsmax. “Psychiatry doesn’t really have a predictive model for which disorders will respond best to which
32 NEWSMAX | MAY 2013
“The tragedy of psychiatry is that we have 130 diff erent drugs, and we don’t know which ones work in which brains.” — George Carpenter, CNS Response CEO
placed on the patient’s head to mea- sure spontaneous brain activity for about 20 to 30 minutes.
MORE EFFICIENT EEG A new system analyzes EEG scans and compares them to a database for the best treatment options.
The information is instantly
uploaded to a CNS Response data cen- ter where 74 separate EEG variables can be computer analyzed and com- pared to the company’s Psychiatric EEG Evaluation Registry (PEER), of more than 35,000 similar brain scans of patients being treated for depres- sion, anxiety, and PTSD. Thanks to advancements in data processing and real-time communica- tions, the system can now be used to quickly determine the best course of treatment for depression and PTSD given the patient’s individual brain activity profi le. It’s not unlike the way
Amazon.com or Netfl ix computers make automated suggestions based on prior purchases. It’s also a far cry from the trial- and-error approach traditionally
COURTESY OF CNS RESPONSE
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