Breathing techniques and music could eventually be deployed to treat mental health disorders such as anxiety and depression, thanks to groundbreaking brain research led by an Ottawa scientist.
In the coming weeks and months, researchers will begin clinical trials aimed at treating anxiety in patients using breathing techniques and treating clinical depression with music, similar to the way physiotherapy is often a first line of treatment for physical injuries and ailments.
Those experimental therapies, individually tailored for patients based, in part, on their brain’s neuronal activity, represent the culmination of research led by Dr. Georg Northoff, Canada Research Chair at the University of Ottawa’s Brain and Mind Research Institute, and a clinical psychiatrist treating patients at the Royal Ottawa Mental Health Centre.