Dr. Tonmoy Sharma
Tonmoy CEO Sovereign Health: Measuring Cognitive Function
Dr. Sharma and shared with Dr. Judith Ho that he believes that one of the biggest problems right across the U.S. in the assessment and treatment of substance abuse disorders is that we are putting people in process groups that cannot process information because we are not measuring cognitive function. Understanding the effects of addiction on cognitive function is a key to changing behavior in those affected. For quite some time doctors and psychologists have had the tools to measure brain function yet they’re not being used in a systematic way. If we collect and measure the data it can be used to analyze, interpret and ultimately inform treatment plans. Dr. Sharma stated that establishing standards of assessment it really quite simple yet it is not happening. The treatment community has been stuck in a mind set with an unwillingness to change. It is time for a paradigm shift and he called upon the substance abuse treatment community to establish measurement based assessment, treatment and follow-up. First it’s important to understand what cognitive function is and how it affects substance use disorders and mental illnesses. Cognitive function are the basic functions that enables us to think. We navigate through everyday life by using functions such as memory, attention, reasoning and problem solving. We use these skills almost unconsciously. New information comes to you, you pay attention to it, you absorb that information and you decide what is important and what to keep. With cognitive disorders there you are not able to keep that information because your brain function has decreased due to illness or other circumstances such as alcohol or drug addiction. In the substance abuse treatment community we should be assessing attention, memory, reasoning and problem solving because cognitive impairment impacts response to treatment including a patient not understanding what is wrong with them. Unfortunately it has been the norm to treat substance abuse with cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) such as process groups. And process groups require somebody to sit down and absorbing information from someone else and make sense of that information and then utilize the information so they can change behavior. make sense of that information, effectively rendering the treatment useless to the patient. The person seeking treatment is left wondering how is it possible to change if I can’t process the information. However it isn’t the patient who needs to change but the providers who need to change their methods of collecting and analyzing the cognitive function of the patient and work to establish measurement based assessment and standards of care.
About Dr. Tonmoy Sharma, CEO, Sovereign Health Group. Over a career spanning 30 years Dr. Sharma has served primarily as an acclaimed researcher having led countless international mental health clinical research trials, taught and trained students as a neuro-scientist and served as author or co-author of more than 200 peer-reviewed published articles and five books on schizophrenia and mental illness. His entire career has been dedicated to putting his vast knowledge to further the mental health field with insights into pharmacology and cognitive impairment treatment. Dr Sharma recognizes that the substance abuse treatment community is heading towards an inevitable next step in its evolution to ensure it continues to improve the quality of patients’ treatment. Today Dr. Sharma is committed to tirelessly promote and call for measurement-based care (MBC) in the diagnosis and treatment of addiction and mental health cognitive impairments so that a national standard measurement scale for level of addiction, and normalcy symptoms can be identified to standardize care and standardize treatment. For more on Tonmoy Sharma, CEO of Sovereign Health Group go to LinkedIn www.linkedin.com/in/tonmoysharmaceo
About Dr. Ho. A licensed and board certified clinical psychologist, Dr Judy Ho, Ph. D. offers her expertise on a variety of national television shows. Based in Los Angeles, she provides professional services in psychological testing and forensic expert work.
Tonmoy CEO Sovereign Health: Measuring Cognitive Function
Dr. Sharma and shared with Dr. Judith Ho that he believes that one of the biggest problems right across the U.S. in the assessment and treatment of substance abuse disorders is that we are putting people in process groups that cannot process information because we are not measuring cognitive function. Understanding the effects of addiction on cognitive function is a key to changing behavior in those affected. For quite some time doctors and psychologists have had the tools to measure brain function yet they’re not being used in a systematic way. If we collect and measure the data it can be used to analyze, interpret and ultimately inform treatment plans. Dr. Sharma stated that establishing standards of assessment it really quite simple yet it is not happening. The treatment community has been stuck in a mind set with an unwillingness to change. It is time for a paradigm shift and he called upon the substance abuse treatment community to establish measurement based assessment, treatment and follow-up. First it’s important to understand what cognitive function is and how it affects substance use disorders and mental illnesses. Cognitive function are the basic functions that enables us to think. We navigate through everyday life by using functions such as memory, attention, reasoning and problem solving. We use these skills almost unconsciously. New information comes to you, you pay attention to it, you absorb that information and you decide what is important and what to keep. With cognitive disorders there you are not able to keep that information because your brain function has decreased due to illness or other circumstances such as alcohol or drug addiction. In the substance abuse treatment community we should be assessing attention, memory, reasoning and problem solving because cognitive impairment impacts response to treatment including a patient not understanding what is wrong with them. Unfortunately it has been the norm to treat substance abuse with cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) such as process groups. And process groups require somebody to sit down and absorbing information from someone else and make sense of that information and then utilize the information so they can change behavior. make sense of that information, effectively rendering the treatment useless to the patient. The person seeking treatment is left wondering how is it possible to change if I can’t process the information. However it isn’t the patient who needs to change but the providers who need to change their methods of collecting and analyzing the cognitive function of the patient and work to establish measurement based assessment and standards of care.
About Dr. Tonmoy Sharma, CEO, Sovereign Health Group. Over a career spanning 30 years Dr. Sharma has served primarily as an acclaimed researcher having led countless international mental health clinical research trials, taught and trained students as a neuro-scientist and served as author or co-author of more than 200 peer-reviewed published articles and five books on schizophrenia and mental illness. His entire career has been dedicated to putting his vast knowledge to further the mental health field with insights into pharmacology and cognitive impairment treatment. Dr Sharma recognizes that the substance abuse treatment community is heading towards an inevitable next step in its evolution to ensure it continues to improve the quality of patients’ treatment. Today Dr. Sharma is committed to tirelessly promote and call for measurement-based care (MBC) in the diagnosis and treatment of addiction and mental health cognitive impairments so that a national standard measurement scale for level of addiction, and normalcy symptoms can be identified to standardize care and standardize treatment. For more on Tonmoy Sharma, CEO of Sovereign Health Group go to LinkedIn www.linkedin.com/in/tonmoysharmaceo
About Dr. Ho. A licensed and board certified clinical psychologist, Dr Judy Ho, Ph. D. offers her expertise on a variety of national television shows. Based in Los Angeles, she provides professional services in psychological testing and forensic expert work.