Exclusive | New ‘video game’ technology can handle depression without medication or conversation therapy

A futuristic adjustment for depression is here – and does not include prescription medicines or a contraction.

The first treatment of its kind by Health Graymatters uses something called “self-neuromodulation” to help patients reassess their brain patterns to relieve their symptoms.

“This is a completely new paradigm of treatment for depression, and it actually works,” told the post Dr. Aaron Sht Shtër, a board -certified psychiatrist and GMH leading medical officer.

The new protocol, called Prism for Depression, officially begins today and will be summarized at the clinics participating in the coming months. A version aimed at helping patients with PTSD in the market last year.

Hope in a “dark, dark, dark” place

For Vivian Jackson, PTSD prism was nothing less than changing life.

The 73-year-old had gone through decades weighed by trauma emanating from an abusive mother, the harassment of a brutal school, and a bitter divorce that left her with a new, single parent.

Her already fragile mental health received a devastating hit as complications from surgery left her unable to swallow and struggling to speak. For 11 days, Jackson was confined to a recovery ward, overloaded by her race, intruders.

“That was when I wanted to jump out of the window. It was dark, dark, dark,” Jackson said. “Surgery just brought everything again.”

The emotional crash that followed was ruthless.

“Nothing made me happy,” she recalled. “I stopped singing, stopped laughing. I just closed.”

A nurse eventually encouraged him to seek help, leading to a PTSD diagnosis – something that surprised Jackson.

“I thought only people in the army who went abroad had it,” she said.

In reality, about 6.8% of American adults – about 13 million people – experience PTSD at a point in their lives, according to the National Center for PTSD.

Jackson had spent years with antidepressants without relief. But when her doctor suggested prism for PTSD, she was immediately intrigued – and finally hoping.

“Video game” approach to happiness

Treatment is relatively direct: 15 sessions, each lasting 45 minutes, over eight weeks. But before immersing the way you work, you need to understand a key player – amigdala.

This small region of the brain controls your response to war or flight. In people with PTSD, it is often stuck in high alarm mode – even when there is no risk – causing symptoms like dance, emotional outbursts and intense anxiety.

PRISM uses an EEG headset to follow the activity in the amygdala, providing real -time reactions in the brain waves associated with PTSD symptoms. Patients then learn how to calm their brain activity using a personalized mental technique.

“Basically it’s a video game. If they are successful. Avatars sit down, and if they lose focus, they stand up.”

Dr. Aaron

Before each session, patients choose what GMH calls a “mental strategy” – a soothing memory, mantra or songs that help them feel safe.

They are then equipped with an EEG headset and animated avatars appear in a busy waiting room.

As the patient focuses on their chosen strategy, headphones trace activity in the brain fear center. When stress levels fall, the avatars slowly decrease and settle – reflecting the patient’s progress in real time.

“Basically it’s a video game,” the tender said. “If they are successful. Avatars sit down and if they lose focus, they stand up.”

Laugh

At first, Jackson fought. She cycle through five different strategies in the first few sessions, unable to calm her mind enough to solve avatars.

Then came the progress.

“Suddenly, there is no noise. There is no confusion. You are simply in peace.”

Vivian Jackson

“You have to make your feelings and your emotions work with your mind,” Jackson recalled telling her doctor. “You’re not controlling the situation. You have to feel it.”

From her fifth session, she occupied in a “mental strategy” – a memory of a beach in California, “her favorite place in the world”.

“The more I did, the more I could feel the sand and the sun, the ocean and the water, the smell of salt,” Jackson said. “Suddenly, there is no noise. There is no confusion. You are simply in peace.”

When she looked up, the avatars on the screen were finally set.

Later that night at home, something had changed. “I sang and laughed again,” Jackson said.

At first, strategy – like Jackson’s beach memory – serves as a tool. But over time, patients learn to regulate their emotions without it, the tendentum explained.

“There is an evolution that happens,” he said. “Because you can process things more appropriately, you are able to get more manageable emotions.”

Two -thirds of patients with PTSD saw serious results

Months later, Jackson is still repeating the benefits of prism. “It gives you a whole new perspective on what life really is,” she said.

“Will I say I won’t have episodes again? No. I can sit and talk about my mother and not feel any of the things I had before.”

And it is not alone.

In a clinical study, 67% of patients showed significant symptoms and sleep improvements three months after the program is over. One third went into full apology.

The most common side effects were mild – headaches, dizziness and fatigue – and all faded after each session.

“You’re doing it yourself,” said the tendler. “You can’t get any safer than this.”

An alternative to speaking therapy

Traditional conversation therapy can tear old open wounds by pushing patients with PTSD to restore trauma that they are not ready to face. The tendler said prism cuts the story – offering a quieter, more controlled route for healing.

“One third of therapists do not refer to their patients in exposure therapy because they do not want to cause them pain, and 38% of patients do not complete exposure therapy for PTSD,” he said.

“I’m not saying it’s not good therapy … it is simply not a practical therapy for a large amount of people,” the tendentum added.

Prism for PTSD is currently offered in more than 20 clinics across the country.

A new road forward for depression

Following the success of Prism for PTSD, GMH turned its focus into large depression, a condition that affects more than 21 million adults in the US every year.

Tendler said that one of the most difficult symptoms of depression to treat is Anhedonia, or the inability to experience pleasure from things that once brought joy.

“There is a large amount of evidence that the basis for this is a fundamental decrease in the amount of activity in what we call the brain rewards system,” he said.

The new expectation for depression aims at this exact issue, aiming to increase activity at the brain reward center and promote the return of pleasure and motivation.

Like the PTSD version, patients wear a soft EEG headset in a smooth room. But instead of a staggering waiting room, they look at an animated dog trying to get a man’s attention.

The patient is then instructed to remember a time when I feel pleasure, excitement or motivation-whether social, sexual, work-related or even food-related.

The EEG system traces activity at the brain reward center. If patients hold a raised feeling of joy for 25 seconds or longer, the animated man gets up and takes the dog for a walk.

“What you are doing is teaching the person to develop and maintain the emotion of reward,” the tendentum explained.

Results are in: 78% Success rate

GMH tested the new version in a small clinical test with 44 participants who had been depressed on average by anhedon for at least six years.

“Quite wonderful, it was very successful,” the tendentum said.

After only 10 treatments, 78% of the participants showed a significant decrease in depressive symptoms and anhedonia, with 32% of forgiveness – meaning that they no longer met the criteria for depression.

GMH is planning a subsequent study with more participants and doubles the number of treatment sessions.

“I assume we will see an even better effect,” the tender said.

While the tender is optimistic about the new treatment, he notes that it is not for everyone.

“It wouldn’t be good for someone who is so depressed that they can’t even get out of bed,” he said. “You need to be able to enter the office.”

The tendler said access is ideal for people with soft to moderate depression. “It doesn’t matter how long you were depressed or what treatments you tried, but you have to have some motivation,” he added.

Unlike PTSD Protocol Prism, the depression version is still awaiting FDA cleansing. However, it is considered a low -risk medical device, allowing it to be traded and used in psychiatry clinics.

GMH told the post that the participating clinics that offer prism will have the depression protocol in the coming months, three of which are located in the largest NYC area.