Therapy and counseling

MindMaze’s animated ‘games,’ designed to aid in recovering motor and cognitive skills in people with neurological disabilities, such as multiple sclerosis (MS), will now be more widely available to patients worldwide. The brain technology company announced four new partnerships that will enable patients in Latin America, the Middle East,…

After speaking about hypnotherapy recently with a few people I know, I realized that many of them didn’t know that hypnosis can be used to manage stress and anxiety. One person remarked, “What do I need to say to get you to quack like a duck?” Well, it’s not like…

I recently wrote about my decision to try hypnotherapy. I’d been feeling out of control over my mental state following a multiple sclerosis flare. I finally admitted that I needed help.  I had an initial phone consultation with my…

Recently, I’ve been struggling through an MS flare. I have been numb, mostly from my neck down, which is reminiscent of my first relapse eight years ago. Numb and slightly weak hands make it extremely difficult to draw.

Wise Therapeutics intends to seek U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval of an anxiety management therapy for multiple sclerosis (MS), following the positive results of a clinical trial. In addition to conducting a proof-of-concept study in MS, Wise tested its digital technique — called attention bias…

Photo courtesy of Caroline Gellatly Day 22 of 31 This is Marissa Green’s story: I am Marissa, a fundraiser, drama therapist, and mental health practitioner who loves the outdoors, cooking, music, and any excuse for a party. My original diagnosis, Balo’s concentric sclerosis, happened in…

Bristol Myers Squibb (BMS) and the American Music Therapy Association (AMTA) are partnering with singer and actor Ben Platt, and dancer, choreographer and actor Courtney Platt, to launch MS in Harmony, the first digital music therapy for patients with multiple sclerosis (MS). “We’re thrilled to have the chance…

Unfortunately, mine didn’t involve a cool motorbike — it was the wrong kind, as somehow Steve McQueen had managed to steal a British one — and an impossible jump at barbed wire to get into Switzerland! I’ll now never be able to get onto a motorbike anyway. Instead, it…

Open Book Extracts (OBX) and Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine have partnered to investigate how cannabinoids like CBD affect brain cells, particularly in regard to neuroinflammation, according to an OBX press release. CBD (cannabidiol) and other cannabinoids, such as THC (tetrahydrocannabinol), have attracted interest for…

Patients in the early stages of multiple sclerosis with mild to moderate symptoms of depression performed worse on cognitive tests related to multitasking than on those focused on single tasks, a study has found. Notably, no such association was observed among healthy individuals, suggesting an MS-related link between mood,…

The anti-inflammatory medication VX-765, which is delivered through the nose (intranasal), was found to limit disease progression in a preclinical model of multiple sclerosis (MS) by blocking a protein called caspase-1. The medication helped prevent damage to brain cells in mice. Researchers from the University of…

“I’m just lazy,” I told myself. “Why can’t I do the things I need to do? I’m so exhausted and in pain all the time, I just want to sleep. Are my MS symptoms getting worse?” My body was driving…

Note: This column was updated July 23, 2020, to remove erroneous information about red blood cells. We regret the error.  When I was newly diagnosed seven years ago, one of the hardest things to deal with was the idea of having…

Four weeks of mindfulness meditation helped to improve thinking skills and a sense of emotional balance in people with multiple sclerosis (MS), and to a greater extent than cognitive training given to a separate patient group, a pilot clinical trial reports.  These results were detailed in two studies,“…

Music is a spiritual experience. I love music in all of its forms. I grew up being serenaded by parents harmonizing everything from the Phi Gam fight song to Peter, Paul and Mary. After crucifying the clarinet, I played the piano until my late teens. I have fond memories of…

XRHealth has raised $7 million to expand its telehealth platform, with the goal of providing clinicians and patients with virtual and augmented reality therapy. The funding will also increase access to virtual support groups for people with multiple sclerosis and other diseases. Telehealth broadly refers to the…

Shorter Ocrevus Infusion Time Up for Approval in US and Europe One of the drawbacks to infusion therapies is the time a patient spends in a recliner receiving the medication. For Ocrevus (ocrelizumab), nearly half a day is required for the infusion itself. Add on pre-infusion care and post-infusion…

With everything being so awful, the goal is to write uplifting copy. OK, sounds like my sort of gig. One way of dealing with things is to become self-absorbed with the old MS. I think it’s getting jealous. How can a mere virus get all this attention? MS: “I’m far…

An investigational therapy that uses nanocrystals of gold to help the brain repair itself represents a breakthrough in the multiple sclerosis (MS) field, says Clene Nanomedicine‘s chief medical officer Robert Glanzman. Glanzman, MD, recently presented promising results at the ACTRIMS Forum 2020 indicating that Clene’s lead…

People with multiple sclerosis (MS) who complete training through a method called the modified Story Memory Technique (mSMT) show a decrease in brain activity after training, which could indicate more efficient brain processing, a recent study shows. The study, “Brain activation patterns associated with paragraph…

Several days ago, the headline “It’s All in Your Head” jumped out at me. The author of the Journal of the American Medical Association article, Matthew Burke, is a neurologist at Harvard Medical School who specializes in neuropsychiatry. According to Burke, the problem of physicians telling patients that unexplainable…

Valeritas Holdings‘ proprietary h-Patch device can be used to administer cannabidiol by an under-the-skin (subcutaneous) infusion, prolonging the time the medication remains in circulation in the body and maximizing its therapeutic effects, a preclinical study has found. Cannabidiol (CBD) is a cannabis-derived, purified liquid formulation that has…

Neuronal Circuit Likely Behind Chronic Itch in MS and Other Diseases Identified I often read posts on multiple sclerosis social media groups complaining about chronic itching. This mouse study may have found a reason for that symptom. The researchers hope that finding the cause will eventually lead to a…

The Consortium of Multiple Sclerosis Centers (CMSC), working with the Foundation of the CMSC (FCMSC) and EMD Serono, launched a new Mental Health Mini-Mentorship Program to help clinicians better understand the psychological and mental health challenges that people with multiple sclerosis (MS) face on a daily…

I confess. I was a toxic person. A “toxic” person can possess many different characteristics — some can be more harmful than others. What do you do when you realize you have a toxic attitude?  The beginning  I never imagined myself becoming a…

Startup company Oscine Therapeutics has received an investment from Sana Biotechnology to support the research and development of cell-based therapies for a variety of neurological disorders, including multiple sclerosis (MS). This venture is based on work done over the past several decades in the lab of Steve…

Pear Therapeutics, in collaboration with Novartis, has launched a study evaluating the clinical use of Pear-006, its software-based prescription digital therapeutics (PDT) product for treating depression symptoms in people with multiple sclerosis (MS). PDTs belong to a new class of treatment strategies in healthcare intended to treat diseases,…

Former Vice President Joe Biden has been in some hot water recently because of his habit of hugging some of the people he meets. More generally, in today’s society, some of the casual social touching that once went on, particularly in the workplace, has become out of bounds.

A clinical trial testing a computer program called Deprexis as a home-based therapeutic strategy for multiple sclerosis (MS)-related depression is enrolling participants with all types of MS  at three sites in the U.S. and two in Germany. The U.S. study locations are the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center,…

If you’re a member of the baby boomer generation, or if you just like the music of the 1960s and ’70s, you probably know Paul Simon’s “50 Ways to Leave Your Lover“: “‘The problem is all inside your head,’ she said to me. ‘The answer is easy…