FDA permits marketing of first brain wave test to help assess children and teens for ADHD

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

http://www.fda.gov/NewsEvents/Newsroom/PressAnnouncements/ucm360811.htm

Well, that’s pretty damn cool. Both as a tool to help in more accurate diagnoses, and to help reduce overdiagnosis. As well as to hopefully encourage people to STFU about overdiagnosis.

2

Interesting. I knew that this technology was on the horizon, but I didn’t realize it was this far along.

3

:confused: Is it a machine or a computer program? The description sounds like what you need to do is run some calculations on a regular EKG, but that’s not something I’d call a “device”. They also refer to the NEBA as a “test”, something which wouldn’t be either a program or a machine.

So what the heck is actually being marketed? A limited-use EKG machine with a specific program? Because if that’s the case, my crystal ball foretells that some markets will buy the new machine and others will reverse-engineer the protocol and use it on the EKG machines they already have.

4

It’s a device that performs a test using eeg waves and math and statistics. Currently, the device, the software and the test itself are all being called NEBA, and the company is known as NEBA Health LLC. http://chronicle.augusta.com/news/health/2013-07-15/augusta-company-has-first-fda-approved-brain-wave-test-adhd?v=1373920601

While I’m not having luck finding that particular patent information, I did find this one on patentdocs, for “S&M FOR ANALYZING AND ASSESSING DEPRESSION AND OTHER MOOD DISORDERS USING ELECTOENCEPHALOGRAHIC (EEG) MEASUREMENTS” which appears to be something similar they’re working on for Depression and other mood disorders, or maybe the same device. I’m not conversant enough in patent-speak to be able to decipher it. S&M FOR ANALYZING AND ASSESSING DEPRESSION AND OTHER MOOD DISORDERS USING ELECTOENCEPHALOGRAHIC (EEG) MEASUREMENTS - Patent application

So I guess it all hinges on whether you’re allowed to reverse engineer a patented system of this sort. Someone knows the answer to that, but it’s not me.

5

I’ve been seeing claims in the science press for years that everything from autism to drug addiction to schizophrenia to lies can be easily revealed by MRI, and I wish diagnostic tests if real and accurate would just be brought to market already!

Seriously it would revolutionize mental health services, get it out there!

6

To clarify, an EEG is an ElectroEncephaloGraph, a written record of the brain’s electrical activity. An EKG is an ElectroK(c)ardioGraph, a written record of the heart’s electrical activity.

7

Any time a concrete way to test for a disease is devised, that’s awesome.