Some of the features from the product page:

Adult and pediatric dosing for FDA-approved and off-label indications

Black box warnings, contraindications, and cautions

Serious and common adverse reactions, and drug interactions organized by clinical category

Pill pictures within the drug monograph showing you and your patients exactly what each drug looks like

Safety and monitoring information, such as pregnancy risk categories, lactation safety ratings, monitoring parameters and therapeutic drug levels

Manufacturer information, approximate retail pricing, and FDA/DEA status

Pharmacology information, including metabolism, excretion (i.e., half-life), drug class, and mechanism of action

Notes section for your personal notes

Press release: Epocrates Drug and Formulary Application on Apple App Store

Product page: Epocrates Rx for iPhone

The product standardizes the collection of subjective data to reduce bias in clinical trials. It also promises to lower the time and cost involved in these assessments, while improving patient comfort. The system will automatically contact a clinician if a patient reaches a certain threshold of "suicidality."

Here are some more comments from the press release:

"...The SMS models the ideal human interviewer, comprehensively and consistently covering every relevant topic while efficiently branching around irrelevant questions. Sound science requires standardization of measurement; the SMS provides a standard of procedural reliability that surpasses the reliability of human investigators performing such assessments."

"Just as the use of digital ECGs in assessing cardiac safety has become an essential part of drug development, we believe that the use of SMS in assessing suicidality will also become an integral part of the drug development process," said Jeffrey S. Litwin, M.D., eRT's Chief Medical Officer.

Read the press release here...

These new brain stimulators, called DC machines, introduce very weak electrical currents. But like TMS, DC also has the same effect of changing the "excitability" of brain cells, either damping down their reactivity or boosting it, which can change the way that the brain responds.

Although the prototype electrical stimulator costs around £5000, the hope is that the costs will fall as more are used. The device is much easier to use than TMS since it does not have to be precisely positioned over the correct brain region, which is currently done with a brain scanner.

The electrical version simply requires two electrodes, colour coded pink and yellow, to be put on head. Then a current passes between them, through the brain.

The method promises to have long lasting results for up to 90 minutes.

"This is a huge advantage of DC because TMS effects only last for a few minutes," says Prof Walsh, who expects the results of his trial next year.

Roger Highfield, a science editor at the Telegraph, got a dose of transcranial magnetic stimulation to experience how the technology can directly influence the brain's ability to function. In the following video Highfield's speech region of the brain is targeted, and successfully interrupted by strong magnetic fields.

More from the Telegraph...

Flashbacks: Medgadget transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) archives...

Picture credit: Brainsway Ltd.: Deep TMS Technology by Brainsway

More about the device:

MEMENTO Memory LifeBook is designed as a "wearable mobile product solution" to serve as a multi-faceted holistic mobile memory aid device as well as providing a security safeguard for elderly individuals with mild-to-moderate dementia. The User-Centered design approach and ergonomic studies are undertaken to devise a product which is effective and meeting the needs and concerns of the target users. The product aims to allow the elderly demented users manage their lives more effectively and efficiently by providing them with the confidence and ability to carry on their day-to-day living independently as normal as possible and for as long as possible by rendering cognitive assistance in various spheres: e.g. maintaining contacts, reminiscence, effecting everyday routine tasks, keeping track of appointments, and keeping close to medication routines among others.

More info on the MEMENTO here...

From the statement by Medtronic:

The data represent the largest and longest clinical experience to date with DBS for psychiatric disorders and was collected through the collaborative research efforts of several leading institutions. All of the studies being presented used the Medtronic DBS system to stimulate a target within the brain called the ventral anterior limb of the internal capsule/ventral striatum (VC/VS), which is a central node in the neural circuits that regulate mood and anxiety.

“The data we are presenting on 43 patients is the result of more than 10 years of work across multiple institutions worldwide. These data represent the largest number and the longest evaluation of patients with psychiatric disorders who have undergone DBS implants, including some with long-term follow up,” said Dr. Rezai, who represented an international working group of physicians studying DBS therapy for treatment resistant OCD and depression. “While OCD and depression treatment with DBS require additional clinical evaluation research, our early open-label experience to date is encouraging and indicates that DBS may help severely disabled and suffering patients who have exhausted other treatment options.”

Press release: Clinical Data on the Use of Medtronic's Deep Brain Stimulation System for Psychiatric Disorders to Be Presented at International Neurosurgical Meeting...

Flashbacks: St. Jude Begins Trial of Deep Brain Stimulation for Depression ; Deep Brain Stimulation Shows Promise in Treatment of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder; Deep Brain Stimulation Therapy for MCS; Deep Brain Stimulation Awakens Patient; St. Jude Receives Patent for Anti Depression Neurostimulation Method; Brain Implant Relieves Depression

Brodmann Area 25 is a structure within the subcollosal gyrus region of the brain. It is the focus of the St. Jude Medical BROADEN(TM) (Brodmann Area 25 DEep brain Neuromodulation) study, which is evaluating whether deep brain stimulation (DBS) therapy can help people who suffer from major depressive disorder, a severe form of depression. This study is being conducted under a U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Investigational Device Exemption (IDE), which was announced in February 2008.

"This patent is a cornerstone in developing our approach to deep brain stimulation for depression, which is the leading cause of disability in the U.S. among illnesses," said Chris Chavez, president of St. Jude Medical's ANS Division. "The BROADEN study provides hope for a meaningful new therapy to the millions of patients still seeking treatment for their severe depression."

On April 4, St. Jude Medical enrolled the first patient, a woman from Chicago, in the BROADEN study. The patient will be implanted with the Libra(R) Deep Brain Stimulation System, an investigational device, at Alexian Brothers Behavioral Health Hospital in Chicago.

Full patent: Method of treating depression, mood disorders and anxiety disorders using neuromodulation...

Press release: St. Jude Medical Awarded U.S. Patent for Neurostimulation Therapy for Depression

"The video scenarios demonstrate evidence-based techniques for assessing and managing at-risk drinking and alcohol use disorders," says NIAAA Director Ting-Kai Li, M.D. "We want to make these techniques widely available to clinicians so that more people with alcohol use problems will get the help they need." Called Video Case Studies: Helping Patients Who Drink Too Much, the program is available through the NIAAA website at www.niaaa.nih.gov/guide.

From the BBC:

During the four-minute ride the volunteers walked around a carriage filled with "virtual" passengers who behaved like real people.

The "avatars" - computer-generated characters - breathed, looked around, and sometimes met the gaze of the participants.

A pre-assessment showed that those who were anxious, worried, pessimistic, or had low self-esteem, were most likely to feel paranoid.

Researchers also said the number of people demonstrating paranoid feelings was higher than expected.

One participant who experienced paranoid thoughts told the scientists: "There's something dodgy about one guy. Like he was about to do something - assault someone, plant a bomb, say something not nice to me, be aggressive."

Of course the system needs to be tested against the old adage: "Just because you aren't paranoid, doesn't mean they aren't out to get you".

More with video at the BBC...

Press release: Virtual tube ride 'paranoia hope'

Dr. Jack Tsao, a Navy neurologist with the Uniform Services University, was looking for ways to help soldiers like Paupore. He remembered reading in graduate school a paper by Dr. V.S. Ramachandran that talked about an unusual treatment for amputees suffering "phantom limb pain," using a simple $20 mirror.

The mirror tricks the brain into "seeing" the amputated leg, overriding mismatched nerve signals.

Here's how it works: The patient sits on a flat surface with his or her remaining leg straight out and then puts a 6-foot mirror lengthwise facing the limb. The patient moves the leg, flexing it, and watches the movement in the mirror. The reflection creates the illusion of two legs moving together.

They say necessity is the mother of invention. While improvements in armor technology have kept more soldiers alive than ever before, many of those saved are coming home as amputees. We've explicitly asked the question before, and the number of posts we've done on the subject serves as evidence: for better or worse, the Iraq and Afghanistan wars are driving major advancements in medical research and technology.

More from CNN...

Photo Credit: michiyoemi

Not surprisingly, such a quick run to the marked has brought some dissenting opinions...

"People are always rushing to the market on the basis of one or two studies," said Dr. Muin Khoury, director of the National Office of Public Health Genomics at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "We have very little evidence that telling people their genetic information is going to make any difference."

Kelsoe acknowledges the weaknesses of his product, but sees it more as a means to start a discussion between a patient and their doctor.

But [Kelsoe] said his test is a vital starting point toward moving away from the notoriously tricky practice of diagnosing bipolar disorder based purely on a person's behavior.

"The goal of this is to try and help doctors make an accurate diagnosis more quickly so the patient can be treated appropriately," Kelsoe said. "Anything is going to help, even if it just helps a little bit."

More from the LA Times and (of course) the product page from Psynomics, Kelsoe's company.