"A special language": an innovative Israeli development for the treatment of anxiety and post-trauma

The Ministry of Defense and a large hospital in Israel are currently testing and showing great interest in an innovative medical device called brainpower, which helps mental patients, including soldiers and combatants who are dealing with severe depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder . The brainpower device has been registered as a registered patent in Israel, the USA, Japan and Germany. According to the developers of the device, it is a breakthrough approach that eliminates the use of drugs, electric shocks or magnetic helmets, treatments that cause severe side effects, and unlike other methods also achieves more immediate results .

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Mapat, the directorate for research, development of weapons and technological infrastructure, a joint body of the Ministry of Defense and the IDF, is one of the most advanced and innovative defense technology bodies in the world, and therefore it is of great importance in its treatment of the scientific and technological aspects of brainpower and its use for the benefit of IDF soldiers and its fighters who are dealing with Post-trauma, depression and anxiety following the fighting.

Dr. Avi Shoshani, who is engaged in brain research and lives in Jerusalem, is the inventor and responsible for developing the product together with a medical team of psychiatrists. He emphasizes that "there is a deep problem with the methods and drugs that exist to treat the common mental struggles among warriors who have returned from the battlefield, especially the severe side effects that result of which the patients sometimes cannot bear. The technology of the new device is based on sensorimotor contacts, which teach the brain a special language, which allows it to be more sensitive to the changes that attack the body following difficult events that the person experiences."

The treatment with the brainpower device also causes movements in the brain similar to those of the mindfulness treatment, which has been carried out by psychologists for years, but unlike the new device, it requires a lot of concentration and makes it difficult for depression patients. Brainpower's technology is based on sending stimuli at a variable speed and density, which reach special centers in the brain that are related to depression and anxiety. At the end of the development process Brainfulness will also be intended for personal self-use in the patient's home.

Dr. Shoshani notes that the results of the research and the treatment of the clinical trial participants with the device were positive and significant, and it is under the supervision of the Helsinki Committee of the Kfar Shaul Hospital in Jerusalem. From the data of the major health insurance funds, it becomes clear that 7.5% of the population in Israel (about 680 thousand people as of 2022) use Antidepressants and anxiety medications: Following the war in Gaza, the number of patients increased significantly, and there was a 29% increase in the number of patients diagnosed with anxiety or depression.