There is a futuristic solution for depression and does not involve recipe medicines or reduction.
Graymatters’ first health treatment uses something called “self-neuromodulation” to help patients claim their own brain patterns to relieve their symptoms.
“This is a completely new paradigm of treatment for depression and really works,” Dr. Aaron Tendler, a board -certified psychiatrist and GMH medical director, told The Post.
The new protocol, called Prism for Depression, is officially launched today and will be published in the participating clinics in the coming months. A version aimed at helping PTSD patients reaching the market last year.
Hope in a “dark, dark, dark” place
For Vivian Jackson, PTSD’s prism did not change life.
The 73 -year -old had had heavy decades for a trauma derived from an abusive mother, brutal bullying and a bitter divorce that was left by a young man.
His already fragile mental health had a devastating blow after the complications of surgery were unable to swallow and fight to speak. For 11 days, Jackson was limited to a recovery room, overwhelmed by his intrusive careers’ thoughts.
“It was when I wanted to jump out the window. It was dark, dark, dark,” said Jackson. “Surgery has just returned -everything.”
The emotional shock that followed was relentless.
“Nothing made me happy,” he recalled. “I stopped singing, I stopped laughing. I closed.”
A nurse eventually encouraged her to seek help, causing a PSD diagnosis, which surprised Jackson.
“I thought only the people of the military who went abroad had it,” he said.
In fact, it is estimated that 6.8% of North -Americans, about 13 million people, experience PTSD at some point in their lives, according to the PTSD National Center.
Jackson had spent years in antidepressants without relief. But when his doctor suggested prism by PTSD, he was instantly intrigued and finally hopeful.
The approach of “video games” to happiness
The treatment is relatively simple: 15 sessions, each lasting 45 minutes, for eight weeks. But before delving into its operation, you have to understand a key player: the amygdala.
This small brain region controls your struggle or flight response. In people with PTSD, it is often stuck in high alert mode, even when there is no danger, they cause symptoms such as jumps, emotional outbursts and intense anxiety.
Prism uses an EEG headset to keep track of the activity in the amygdala, providing real -time comments on brain waves related to PTSD symptoms. Patients then learn to soothe their brain activity through a personalized mental technique.
“It is essentially a video game. If they are successful, the avatars sit down and, if they lose their focus, they stand.”
Dr. Aaron tender
Before each session, patients choose what GMH calls a “mental strategy”: a soothing memory, a mantra or a song that helps them feel safe.
They are then equipped with an EEG headset and shows animated ups and downs in an occupied waiting room.
As the patient focuses on his chosen strategy, headphones monitor the activity at the brain fear center. When stress levels go down, the avatars sit slowly and settle, reflecting the patient’s progress in real time.
“It is essentially a video game,” said Tendler. “If they are successful, the avatars sit down and, if they lose their focus, stand.”
Carries the laughter
At first, Jackson fought. He traveled five different strategies in the first sessions, unable to calm his mind enough time to establish the avatars.
Then came the advance.
“Suddenly there is no noise, no confusion. You’re just in peace.”
Vivian Jackson
“You have to make your feelings and emotions work with your mind,” Jackson recalled that he told his doctor. “Do not control the situation. You have to feel it.”
In his fifth session, he entered a “mental strategy”: a memory of a beach in California, his “favorite place in the world”.
“The more I did, the more the sand and the sun, the ocean and the water, the smell of salt, said Jackson. “Suddenly there is no noise, no confusion. You’re just in peace.”
When he looked at the sight, the ups and downs of the screen had finally settled.
Later that night at home, something had changed. “He was singing and laughing again,” said Jackson.
At first, the strategy, like the memory of Jackson beach, serves as a tool. But over time, patients learn to regulate their emotions without him, he explained Tendler.
“There is an evolution that happens,” he said. “Because you can process things more properly, you can get more manageable emotions.”
Two -thirds of PSD patients saw serious results
Months later, Jackson continues to repeat the benefits of prism. “It gives you a completely new perspective on what life really is,” he said.
“I would say that I will never have episodes again? No. I will, but I know what are my triggers and how to work with them now,” Jackson continued. “I can sit and talk about my mother and I don’t feel any of the things he had before.”
And it’s not alone.
In a clinical study, 67% of patients showed an improvement in symptoms and improvements in their three months after the end of the program. A third one went into complete remission.
The most common side effects were mild (headaches, dizziness and fatigue) and they all faded themselves after each session.
“You do it for yourself,” said Tendler. “You can’t get more safe than that.”
An alternative to speaking therapy
Traditional conversation therapy can open old wounds by pushing PTSD patients to relive the trauma that they are not ready to deal with them. Tendler said Prism cuts storytelling: to offer a quieter and more controlled path to healing.
“One third of therapists do not refer their patients to exposure therapy because they do not want to cause pain, and 38% of patients do not complete PTSD’s exposure therapy,” he said.
“I’m not saying it’s not a good therapy … it’s not a practical therapy for a huge number of people,” said Tendler.
At present Prism for PSD is offered to more than 20 clinics from all over the country.
A new way forward for depression
Following the success of the PTSD prism, GMH focused on the major depression, a condition that affects more than 21 million adults in the United States each year.
Tendler said that one of the toughest symptoms of depression to be treated is the yearning or the inability to experience the pleasure of things that had previously brought joy.
“There is a lot of tests that show that the base is an underlying decrease in the amount of activity in what we call the brain reward system,” he said.
The new prism for depression aims at this exact problem, with the aim of increasing the activity at the brain rewards center and causing the return of pleasure and motivation.
Like the PTSD version, patients carry a soft headset in a quiet room. But instead of an animated waiting room, they see an animated dog trying to get the attention of a human.
The patient is then asked to remember a time that he felt pleasure, emotion or motivation, whether social, sexual, related to work or even linked to food.
The EEG system tracks the activity at the brain reward center. If the patients have an increase in joy for 25 seconds or more, the animated humans get up and take the dog for a walk.
“What he does is teach the person how to develop and maintain the emotion of reward,” said Tendler.
The results are in: 78% of success rate
GMH tested the new version in a small clinical trial with 44 participants who had been moderately depressed with Anhedonia for at least six years.
“Surprisingly, he was very successful,” said Tendler.
After only 10 treatments, 78% of participants showed a significant reduction in depressive symptoms and yearnic, 32% of re -redevelopment, which no longer met the criteria of depression.
GMH plans a monitoring study with more participants and doubles the number of treatment sessions.
“I guess we will see an even better effect,” said Tendler.
Although Tendler is optimistic about the new treatment, he says it is not for everyone.
“It would not be good for someone who is so deeply depressed that you can’t even get out of bed,” he said. “You have to be able to enter the office.”
Tendler said the approach is ideal for people with mild to moderate depression. “No matter how long you have been depressed or what treatments you have tried, but you have to have some level of motivation,” he added.
Unlike the prism of the PTSD protocol, the depression version continues to wait for the FDA Clearance. However, it is considered a low-risk medical device, which allows it to market and use it in psychiatry clinics.
GMH told The Post that the participating clinics offering prism will have the depression protocol in the coming months, three of which are in the area of the major NYC.
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