Dr. Tonmoy Sharma
Dr Tonmoy Sharma Discusses a Vision for Cognitive Assessment
In a series of conversations recently held between Dr. Judith Ho and Dr. Tonmoy Sharma, CEO, Sovereign Health Group discussed the need for a paradigm shift in the way we are assessing and perhaps treating people with substance abuse addiction as well as mental health in this country. Dr. Sharma suggests that if this is a brain disorder let us assess cognitive function and assess brain function both in terms of the cognition as well as the psychophysiology. For instance, just as we would look at blood sugar in a diabetic patient, let’s look at how our brain waves are behaving as a tool for assessing brain disorders. We now have the tools to assess these and yet we don’t do so and they are not that expensive and they are reimbursable by insurance carriers. We can make a strong argument that these assessments are crucial to helping people suffering from addiction. Armed with this information we can then start treatment. We know that a lot of people with substance abuse also have mental health problems almost 80% of people have a dual diagnosis. At Sovereign Health Group we have expertise in-house to be able to treat both conditions. We can treat cognitive problems by cognitive remediation but let us first do the assessment. For instance, we might assess what we call the psychophysiology of the brain by doing a quantitative EEGs. It is not as complicated, there are automated methods of doing this. Now we talk about how you might change people’s thinking and you want to change behavior. You could change behavior but unless you change the way they think and the way their brain behaves and their deficits and their decision making process you are not going to change behavior. Currently, the entire industry is focused on changing behavior. We ask, “how did patients get into this in the first place?” Because their decision making process was impaired, they are aware that alcohol and drugs are bad for them yet they went ahead and did it anyway. This happened because there was a problem in what we call executive function planning and decision making. Unless we help people with addiction improve their planning and decision making we are going to discharge them they are going to do the same thing over and over again.
For more detailed information on Dr. Tonmoy Sharma, CEO of Sovereign Health Group go to LinkedIn www.linkedin.com/in/tonmoysharmaceo
Dr Judy Ho, Ph. D., ABPP is a licensed and board certified Clinical Psychologist based in Los Angeles. She lends her psychology expertise as a panelist on a variety of national television shows and provides professional services in Psychological Testing and Forensic Expert work. She is a tenured professor of psychology at Pepperdine University.
Dr Tonmoy Sharma Discusses a Vision for Cognitive Assessment
In a series of conversations recently held between Dr. Judith Ho and Dr. Tonmoy Sharma, CEO, Sovereign Health Group discussed the need for a paradigm shift in the way we are assessing and perhaps treating people with substance abuse addiction as well as mental health in this country. Dr. Sharma suggests that if this is a brain disorder let us assess cognitive function and assess brain function both in terms of the cognition as well as the psychophysiology. For instance, just as we would look at blood sugar in a diabetic patient, let’s look at how our brain waves are behaving as a tool for assessing brain disorders. We now have the tools to assess these and yet we don’t do so and they are not that expensive and they are reimbursable by insurance carriers. We can make a strong argument that these assessments are crucial to helping people suffering from addiction. Armed with this information we can then start treatment. We know that a lot of people with substance abuse also have mental health problems almost 80% of people have a dual diagnosis. At Sovereign Health Group we have expertise in-house to be able to treat both conditions. We can treat cognitive problems by cognitive remediation but let us first do the assessment. For instance, we might assess what we call the psychophysiology of the brain by doing a quantitative EEGs. It is not as complicated, there are automated methods of doing this. Now we talk about how you might change people’s thinking and you want to change behavior. You could change behavior but unless you change the way they think and the way their brain behaves and their deficits and their decision making process you are not going to change behavior. Currently, the entire industry is focused on changing behavior. We ask, “how did patients get into this in the first place?” Because their decision making process was impaired, they are aware that alcohol and drugs are bad for them yet they went ahead and did it anyway. This happened because there was a problem in what we call executive function planning and decision making. Unless we help people with addiction improve their planning and decision making we are going to discharge them they are going to do the same thing over and over again.
For more detailed information on Dr. Tonmoy Sharma, CEO of Sovereign Health Group go to LinkedIn www.linkedin.com/in/tonmoysharmaceo
Dr Judy Ho, Ph. D., ABPP is a licensed and board certified Clinical Psychologist based in Los Angeles. She lends her psychology expertise as a panelist on a variety of national television shows and provides professional services in Psychological Testing and Forensic Expert work. She is a tenured professor of psychology at Pepperdine University.