Erin Smith

Global society is faced with interrelated challenges that are complex, systemic, and dynamic from climate change, population displacement, famine, productivity slowdown, and mis- and dis-information to cyber exploitation, mental health crisis epidemics, aging and dementia, COVID-19-related losses, and fraying trust in social and political institutions.

 of neuroscientists, medical doctors, and economists came together to develop new concepts, ideas, and tools to use brain science to tackle some of society’s most pressing problems. A seminal paper outlining their preliminary thinking on brain capital was published in January 2021.

 The agenda has significantly advanced since through deeper, transdisciplinary research and narratives; broader academic, business, and policy networks; and refined measurement to guide all stakeholders and monitor progress. The 

Each of us possesses a complex system—the brain—which is implicated in the emergence, propagation, aggravation, and potential resolution of these challenges. To address these issues, a neuropolitical approach that considers brain capacity as a crucial asset is needed. The insights can be translated into policy, business practices, and civil society advocacy. In response to the urgent needs, a group of researchers and policymakers developed the concept of brain capital.

Brain capital is based on the position that brains are the world’s most important resource and the means by which all problems will be solved, ameliorated, or worsened. The brain capital framework acknowledges the importance of every brain and the corresponding need for brain diversity to achieve equity in solving global issues. Brain capital is a framework incorporating brain health and brain skills in the knowledge economy. In an era that is dependent on intellectual capacity, our brains are our greatest asset. Brain capital provides an approach to define brain issues, quantify them, and track them. Brain preservation and enhancement is critical to advancing brain capital, which can be driven into local, national, and international policies and investments.

Despite the fundamental importance of brain health and brain skills, these factors are often overlooked in policy-making and are not well-reflected in measures of human capital.

 Brain capital differs from human capital in its recognition of the unique role that brain health and brain skills play in human civilization. Unlike human capital measures, which look at broad educational and health metrics, brain capital encompasses and measures brain health as well as society-  and economy-critical variables such as collective confidence, social trust, and shared values and goals. These key social processes in turn depend on critical aspects of individual human functioning such as perceived control, confidence, ability to work collectively, problem-solving capacity, and values-driven goals. It also differs from human capital in its encompassing and measurement of economy-shaping brain health measures such as addiction, depression, anxiety, brain fog, loneliness, and dementia.

There is a range of notable achievements of brain capital in the past 18 months, including new initiatives, expanded partnerships, and more outreach and influence. These are interlocking and mutually reinforcing.

The Organisation of Economic Collaboration and Development (OECD) established the Neuroscience-inspired Policy Initiative in collaboration with the PRODEO Institute.

 Consultations have been held with the United National Development Programme and the World Health Organization (WHO). The OECD NIPI supported the European Brain Initiative in collaboration with EBRAINS, French EU Presidency, the European Commission, the WHO, scientific societies, patient organizations, and health professionals.

 The Meadows Mental Health Policy Institute appointed a senior fellow for brain capital.

 A new chair of excellence in brain capital will be established as part of the recently funded PEPR ProPsy, a project to develop precision psychiatry in France.

 and the Latin American Brain Health Institute (BrainLat)

 both launched brain capital summer courses, respectively.

Brain capital also received notable mentions in 2 US Congressional presentations in front of the Congressional Neuroscience Caucus

 and the US House Select Committee on Economic Disparity and Fairness in Growth.

 There has been engagement with major think tanks including the Center for European Policy Studies

Two working groups were also established. The 

 aims to formalize the field of brain health diplomacy

 and to develop a brain health diplomat toolkit. Working group members include former US State Department official Virginia Bennett and former US Representative Patrick J. Kennedy (D-RI). The 

 aims to quantify and track brain capital and is constituted by economists, neuroscientists, and physicians. This is seen as a critical project and will subserve future policy innovations.

Additional notable achievements for the brain capital agenda are outlined in the 

 Notable Achievements for the Brain Capital Agenda

Most recently, the Brain Capital Alliance, a public-private-people partnership, was launched via a series of events in Europe.

 The alliance aims to advance approaches to measurement, investment, and policy and will further integrate brain capital into policy agendas including productivity, climate change, political stability, gender equality, and neurotechnology. The alliance will raise awareness among public and private leaders for neuroscience-related issues across the life span, from early childhood development to youth resilience and brain reserve, to reduce the risk of cognitive decline in older adults.

The Brain Capital Dashboard will be refined and leveraged in policy discussions. Specific research labs will be developed to experiment at different scales and will be applied to real world problems such as micro-plastic pollution, the youth mental health crisis, caregiver distress, and disinformation. These platforms will improve the statistical bases and analytical foundation to guide decisions and assess progress. Novel financial instruments will also be explored to unlock additional funding for building brain capital such as bonds, venture capital, and exchange traded funds.

The alliance is seeking interested supporters, collaborators, and partners to accelerate this work.

As we look toward the future, it is imperative that brain capital continues to be developed and integrated into policy, business, and society. To sustainably solve the most pressing global challenges, we must place brain capital at the heart of solutions. We must develop ways to use brain science to overcome the most difficult, seemingly intractable global problems.

is the lead of the Brain Capital Alliance, co-lead of the OECD NIPI and Senior Fellow with the Meadows Mental Health Policy Institute. Eyre maintains advisory or adjunct roles with IMPACT at Deakin University, the Heka Fund, Brain Health Nexus at Cohen Veterans Bioscience, GBHI, Baylor College of Medicine, BrainLat, University of Texas Health Sciences Center at Houston, the Davos Alzheimer’s Collaborative, and the Euro-Mediterranean Economists Association (EMEA).

is an associate fellow at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies.

is the director of the IMPACT Institute at Deakin University.

is an Atlantic Fellow for Equity in Brain Health at the Global Brain Health Institute, a Thiel Fellow at Stanford University, and a Steering Committee member for the OECD Neuroscience-inspired Policy Initiative. 

is theJoy Chambers-Grundy Professor of Brain Science

director of the Chambers-Grundy Center for Transformative Neuroscience

and co-director of the Pam Quirk Brain Health and Biomarker Laboratory

A brain capital grand strategy: toward economic reimagination

2. Angrist N, Djankov S, Goldberg PK, Patrinos HA. 

Measuring human capital using global learning data

3. Neuroscience-inspired Policy Initiative. Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. Accessed August 22, 2022. 

4. Towards a European brain initiative. EBRAINS. Accessed August 22, 2022. 

https://www.ebrains.eu/news/Towards-a-European-Brain-Initiative/

5. Harris Eyre, MBBS, PhD: senior fellow for brain capital. Meadows Mental Health Policy Institute. Accessed August 22, 2022. 

6. Brain Capital Alliance launches to accelerate agenda for change. Newsmatics Inc. News release. July 17, 2022. Accessed August 22, 2022. 

https://www.einnews.com/pr_news/581691203/brain-capital-alliance-launches-to-accelerate-agenda-for-change

7. Brain capital continues to advance. Global Brain Health Institute. September 7, 2022. Accessed September 8, 2022. 

https://www.gbhi.org/news-publications/brain-capital-continues-advance

8. Bär N. Políticas públicas y neurociencia, la deuda con la salud cerebral. 

. September 1, 2022. Accessed September 7, 2022. 

https://www.eldestapeweb.com/sociedad/salud/politicas-publicas-y-neurociencia-la-deuda-con-la-salud-cerebral-2022910526?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Twitter#Echobox=1662030318

9. Improving brain health and reducing the scale and impact of dementia worldwide. Global Brain Health Institute. Accessed August 22, 2022. 

10. Congressional Neuroscience Caucus Briefing long haul neurological & psychological impacts of COVID19. American Brain Coalition on YouTube. May 18, 2022. Accessed August 22, 2022. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sdUwKIHccFE

11. Graham C. Addressing America’s crisis of despair and economic recovery: a call for a coordinated effort. Testimony to the House Select Committee on Economic Disparity and Fairness in Growth. September 28, 2021. Accessed August 22, 2022. 

https://www.brookings.edu/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/Carol-Graham-Testimony-Sept-28-2021.pdf

12. Launch event of the Brain Capital Alliance: towards a person-centered approach to brain health. CEPS Think Tank on YouTube. July 4, 2022. Accessed August 22, 2022. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mo2dASiMrd4

13. Dawson WD, Graham C, Smith E, et al. Build brains better: a proposal for a White House brain capital council to accelerate post-COVID recovery and resilience. The Brookings Institute. December 22, 2021. Accessed August 22, 2022. 

https://www.brookings.edu/research/build-brains-better-a-proposal-for-a-white-house-brain-capital-council-to-accelerate-post-covid-recovery-and-resilience/

14. Dawson WD, Bobrow K, Ibanez A, et al. 

The necessity of diplomacy in brain health

Articles

A transdisciplinary team summarizes key points and reflections after 18 months of activity.

Advancing Brain Capital: Achievements, Lessons, and Next Steps

Cybercrime may sound like science fiction to some people, but it is sadly a firsthand experience of an increasing number. As more of our social lives, work, and money move online, it is necessary for everyone to have some understanding of cybersecurity. Curiously, just as computers can be hacked, our brains can be “hacked” by social engineering. Estimates suggest that 84% to 98% of “hacks” rely on exploiting psychological vulnerabilities, not just computer code.

Brain capital conceptualizes brain health (eg, the lack of mental illness and neurodegenerative disease) and brain skills (eg, education) as essential to the digital economy.

 This concept assumes that our brains are our greatest asset and provides a framework to define brain issues, quantify them, and track them. Brain capital can drive new workplace policies, practices, and investments.

As most of our time and lives have moved away from physical spaces into cyberspace, the opportunities for working, connecting, and communicating online have expanded. As more of our lives move online, those who seek to make money from crime and exploitation move online, too.

When our activities move online, all actions, links, and connections create a larger digital footprint—a traceable and permanent history of digital activity. Your digital footprint consists of all information that you leave behind as part of your online activity. When you search for products, services, or information online, you leave traces of what you were looking for. Social media websites track the individuals you communicate with, along with the topics you tend to be interested in and the types of websites and advertisements you click. Advertisers also create profiles, tracking information across websites to build up profiles of individuals, groups, and cohorts. The more you communicate, bank, invest, work, shop, chat, game, and watch films and TV online, the bigger your digital footprint grows—and your digital identity can be shared between many online platforms and is often on-sold.

Much of this information is stored privately, but many individuals also leave large digital footprints that are publicly available. For most people, if you know their name, the area they live in, and their job title, you can find a significant amount of information that is publicly available. Professional and amateur sports teams often have public rosters and schedules. Professional profiles are available on most company websites and LinkedIn. Personal information is often shared on sites like Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. All this information has connections with real people and real-life activities.

When we talk about being targets of cybercrime online, we usually refer to it as being “hacked.” Hacking used to refer to some sort of exploit or vulnerability in computer code, but many digital scams and thefts do not bother trying to hack computer code—instead, they opt to exploit vulnerabilities that exist within our brains.

The more appropriate term and the more common exploit is what is called “social engineering.” If someone logged into your Facebook account, gained access to your online banking, or accessed a website that has access to your credit card details, it is far more likely that they managed to find out enough information about you to gain access to that account—not that they exploited some sort of vulnerability in the computer code.

Most individuals still use relatively simple passwords (eg, password, secret, abc123, 123456, and variations on words related to current affairs are still the most common passwords) or self-referential passwords (eg, surnames, kids' names, pets, street addresses, birthdates) that are fairly easy to guess with publicly available information. Most individuals use the same password on many websites, so when 1 password is leaked, every account is then vulnerable.

Most cybercriminals are not exploiting the vulnerabilities in hardware or software—rather, they are exploiting the vulnerabilities in 

A large proportion of cybercriminals are not necessarily computer geniuses or master hackers. They are con artists who seek out the locations and spaces where individuals are vulnerable to being taken advantage of. Increasingly often, these are digital spaces.

As an example of this, take 2 extremely common examples of social engineering techniques that try to take advantage of people online. Your email spam filters probably catch and block many of Type 1, but Type 2 is also quite common.

Phishing is when a malicious actor masquerades as a trusted entity to gain information. Phishing typically uses widely available information and mass communication to target large groups of people. For example, a common type of phishing scam will have a cybercriminal send emails out masquerading as a bank or utility company. The email mimics a typical communication from the bank, but seeks to obtain personal information like passwords, account information, or security details by prompting people to logon to a bogus but genuine-looking website. Many spam filters eliminate a large percentage of phishing messages, but disturbingly many get through to your inbox.

You can often spot phishing attempts due to some common features. First, they often threaten you by indicating that your software is out of date or your warranty is about to expire. Second, they may offer you an incentive such as a free gift card or windfall money. Third, they have a clear call to action asking you to click on a link or open an attachment. Doing so injects malware into your machine, compromising your personal computer.

Spear phishing is a particularly sinister form of attack. These are specifically targeted at an individual by making use of personal information, often gathered from social media or from the individual’s publicly available profile on the web. For example, a scammer might imitate an email from a different department or external organization to gain information from a targeted individual or group within a company. An increasingly common variant is when a scammer impersonates an individual in a leadership position in an organization pressurising them to fulfill an online task.

Another example is by using some publicly available information to obtain other information. For example, if your family plans to be at an out-of-town football tournament for several days, there may be enough information to indicate this is a possibility, so that information could be used by someone masquerading as a representative of the local sports association to confirm that the house will be unoccupied on certain days. Or it could be someone attempting to collect sensitive data from individuals within a company, either for malicious purposes or to gain further access into that company’s IT systems.

Neither of these are hacks targeting computer code—they are attempts to gather more information using psychological and social strategies to target victims.

When should you worry? Be suspicious anytime you are contacted by an unfamiliar individual or agency offering you an improbable gift or to help you avoid a potential crisis related to your finances or business. These messages sound plausible at first glance but digging a bit deeper can reveal other telltale features. If you are asked to click a link—or worse, to open an attachment—be wary. Always check the email address or the web address of the sender. These often look like real companies on the surface but have odd prefixes or suffixes that do not add up. If things look at all illegitimate, do not proceed and do not click the link. When in doubt, check with a colleague or an IT professional in your organization.

Cognitive Biases and Exploiting Social Norms

Research into individual differences and vulnerabilities in dispositional factors has found limited evidence of outcomes with cybercrime victimization.

 Much of the research on personality correlates of fraud susceptibility is atheoretical or fails to incorporate validated personality instruments. Personality correlates of fraud susceptibility tend to be modest, at best. Loneliness, well-being, trust, and cognitive abilities have all been hypothesized to have some relationship with cybercrime vulnerability, but the associations are weak and the mechanisms are poorly understood. They are likely to have significant interactions with decision-making strategies and environmental cues. Falling victim to cybercrime is highly situational and contextual. The most effective cybercrime does not target groups based on dispositional factors—it targets individuals based on personal factors.

The best protective factors are experiential factors. Knowledge of cybersecurity, understanding of common scams, and experience using digital technology can all be protective factors. However, these interact with dispositional factors. For example, those with a high degree of technical knowledge about online environments may be overconfident about their ability to spot scams.

The best framework we can use for understanding how individuals fall victim to cybercrime is understanding the cognitive biases and the social norms that are exploited by cybercriminals. Williams, Beardmore, and Joinson

 detail the most common norms that are exploited.

 Most individuals tend to be responsive to people or institutions with an established level of authority or power, like government departments, banks, police, managers, or public figures. Imitating authority figures draws on that trust in authority.

 Cybercriminals may create fake identities (either individuals or institutions) that appear kind or prosocial, especially philanthropic figures, charitable organizations, or warm and caring individuals.

Cybercriminals often indicate that many others have benefited from responding in a certain way, hoping to create the expectation that similar behavior will lead to the same result.

 This strategy relies on the sunken cost trap. Getting a small amount of money as an initial investment, processing fee, or other small cost can lead to individuals sending more money to achieve the desired result.

 Cybercriminals often initially offer a favor or prize, setting up an expectation of the victim providing something in return.

 Cybercriminals often create time or resource pressures to encourage the individual to participate in the scam urgently: “limited-time offer.”

 Cybercriminals often promise some sort of reward that could be psychological, financial, or physical (eg, cure illness, lose weight, yield high investment returns, feel good about yourself, etc).

 Cybercriminals often indicate that a failure to act or respond will result in some type of penalty, loss, end of relationship, or loss of status.

These cognitive biases can be directly impacted by impaired brain health, making individuals more susceptible to exploitation by cybercriminals. Brain health is vulnerable to stress and exhaustion, such as that resulting from mounting uncertainty in the world. Friedman

 describes that we are living in an “age of accelerations” resulting from technological innovation, and rapidity from climate change and globalization. The confluence of these accelerations is leading to rapid societal change and uncertainty.

Building Brain Capital to Reduce Cybercrime

To combat these potential issues in the workplace, it is essential to foster a sense of community, purpose, and value within each individual. If individuals feel that their work is valued, including from a tangible perspective such as a raise or promotion, they are more likely to continue to stay with a company and more likely to foster a positive community. Clear and direct communication along with tangible goals to strive toward leads to individuals being more likely to accomplish what they set out to do in exemplary and innovative ways.

There are ways to mitigate the potential of cybercriminals to exploit the cognitive biases of individuals. One way is for leaders within companies to emphasize brain capital, including increasing the value and accessibility of caring for employee mental health. From a cybersecurity perspective, the boundaries between personal lives and business lives are blurry or nonexistent. Your computer is equally vulnerable to an attack on a personal-related account or a work-related account. Stressed and pressured individuals are also more likely to be vulnerable to attack. Thus, ensuring that insurance covers visits with mental health professionals, allowing for time away from work for mental health crises and encouraging open communication regarding mental health in company culture, can contribute to security. Even leaders can do this by showcasing their own vulnerabilities and fostering a positive, ongoing dialog surrounding mental health.

Another strategy to increase resilience to cybercrime—especially social engineering attacks—is to emphasize training and education on the cognitive biases and social norms that are exploited by cybercriminals. We recognize the quality work of groups such as the 

National Cybersecurity Center in Colorado Springs

Cyber Security Research and Education Institute

 at the University of Texas at Dallas, and digital literacy workshops provided by organizations like 

Many individuals think of being “hacked” as an activity rooted in software and hardware, without realizing that cybercriminals are far more likely to exploit our cognitive biases, our brains, than vulnerabilities in computer code.

 Dark Social: Understanding the Dark Side of Work, Personality, and Social Media. 

is a psychiatry resident physician at the UCSF Fresno Psychiatry residency program. 

is an Atlantic Fellow for Brain Health Equity at the Global Brain Health Institute and a Stanford Thiel Fellow. She is on the steering committee for the OECD NIPI.

is deputy director of the Center for BrainHealth in Dallas and holds the Debbie and Jim Francis Chair at the University of Texas at Dallas. 

is Alfred Deakin Professor of Psychiatry at Deakin University and director of the Institute for Mental and Physical Health and Clinical Translation (IMPACT). He holds honorary professorial appointments with ORYGEN Youth Health, the Florey Institute for Neuroscience and Mental Health, and the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Melbourne. 

 is lead of the Brain Capital Alliance and co-lead of the OECD Neuroscience-Inspired Policy Initiative (NIPI). He is also senior fellow for brain capital with the Meadows Mental Health Policy Institute. He holds adjunct appointments with Deakin University’s IMPACT, and the departments of psychiatry at Baylor College of Medicine and the University of Texas Health Sciences Center at Houston. He holds advisory positions with the Women’s Brain Project, the Heka Fund (a collaboration of Newfund Capital and FondaMental Fondation), the Davos Alzheimer’s Collaborative, the Brain Health Nexus of Cohen Veterans Bioscience, BrainLat, and the Euro-Mediterranean Economists Association.

1. Goldman J. Fully 84 percent of hackers leverage social engineering in cyber attacks. eSecurity Planet. February 28, 2017. Accessed June 10, 2022. 

https://www.esecurityplanet.com/threats/fully-hackers-leverage-social-engineering-in-cyber-attacks/

The psychology of internet fraud victimisation: a systematic review

4. Williams EJ, Beardmore A, Joinson AN. 

Individual differences in susceptibility to online influence: a theoretical review

Thank You for Being Late: An Optimist’s Guide to Thriving in the Age of Accelerations

How prioritizing brain health and brain skills could offer new solutions to this challenge.

Cybercriminal Exploitation of Cognitive Biases: A Brain Capital Perspective

Depression is the leading cause of disability and a major contributor to the overall global burden of disease.

 highlights, despite how common depression is across the life course, critical barriers have prevented depression from receiving sufficient resources and global attention.

 Depression has historically been stigmatized and misunderstood, and it arises due to a combination of biological, social, and psychological factors. Limited access to treatment and lack of cross-disciplinary, collaborative research and care has hindered progress. Additionally, women are disproportionately affected by depression and are twice as likely to have a diagnosis of depression as men, likely due to the combination of health inequities, gender biases, and biological factors.

 when elderly, and it might be a reason more women have dementia than men.

 Developing innovative solutions for depression—especially those focused on women that account for sex and gender differences—are critical to improving individual and collective resilience.

To develop women-focused solutions for depression, it is important to understand the various factors that contribute to women’s greater risk for depression. A health equity and public health lens is imperative. The distinction between sex and gender also needs to be clear, with sex referring to biological differences and gender encompassing socially constructed and enacted roles and behaviors shaped by historical and cultural contexts. Additionally, diagnostic tools, symptom screeners, medications, and other health tools must not have sex or gender bias.

Women in their reproductive years undergo cycle changes in steroid hormones (progesterone/estrogen) over the menstrual cycle. The role of these changes as a factor contributing to depression and mood changes is seen in women with premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD) and premenstrual syndrome (PMS). The estimated prevalence in reproductive women is 5% (PMDD) and 20% (PMS). There is growing evidence that the rise in ovarian steroid hormone production and the effect of their metabolites (in particular allopregnanolone) on central brain receptors as progesterone receptor modulators contribute to the mood symptoms in 

 More research is needed to understand the long-term neurological impacts of birth control and hormone therapy.

 Treatments are now being developed to target these newer proposed actions of hormones on the central brain systems with either 

 (removing the natural fluctuations in hormones) or “correcting” the neurotransmitter or 

 with the use oftargeted specific antidepressants.

The female preponderance in depression occurs largely during the reproductive years, is not evident before puberty, and is less marked after menopause. Societal factors may also play an important role; even in developed countries, women still often take a greater responsibility for child rearing and domestic activities while still being expected to progress their careers—known as a “double day.” Women worldwide are also the majority of caregivers for family members needing health care; often this role is unpaid.

Depression is also linked to intimate partner violence (IPV). 

 globally have experienced physical or sexual IPV.

 Since the outbreak of COVID-19, IPV has escalated and been called the 

 of COVID-19. In numerous countries, there has been a 

, likely fueled by effects and mitigation strategies of COVID-19.

 would be affected by IPV for every 3 months of lockdown.

One particularly devastating yet unaddressed and long neglected impact is the mental and brain health effects—

including traumatic brain injury (TBI) and depression

—resulting from IPV. Numerous studies have found that women exposed to IPV are more likely to develop depression than women who are not exposed.

 This finding is not surprising, given that mental health issues are common sequelae of brain injury that may emerge and worsen years after injury. However, IPV is too often left out of conversations around prevention and treatment of depression.

It is also important to note the connection between depression and chronic health conditions in women, such as heart disease. Since 1989, heart disease has been 

 Women are also more likely than men to die after a heart attack.

Women are more likely to be undiagnosed, misdiagnosed, or poorly treated for their heart disease due to pervasive bias and the male body being the default for biomedical care and research. Additionally, 

the Guidelines for the Prevention of Cardiovascular Disease in Women

 by the American Heart Association show the profound impact of hypertension, diabetes, and depression on women’s hearts.

 It is imperative to understand the huge impact of psychosocial risk factors on women’s hearts and address problems including depression and social isolation.

Understanding the role of depression in dementia for women is also imperative. 

The WHAM Report (Women’s Health Access Matters)

 found that women are 66% of the nearly 7 million people in the United States with Alzheimer disease, and yet just 12% of 2019 NIH Alzheimer disease fund went to projects focused on women.

 Even more, the report showed the following: (1) Doubling the funds for women’s Alzheimer disease research pays for itself 3 times over; (2) this 224% return on investment adds 15% more to our economy than general Alzheimer disease research; and (3) adding $300 million for research on women generates $930 million in economic gains, adds back 4000 years of life, eliminates 6500 Alzheimer disease and related dementias, and saves 3500 years of nursing home care and costs. Depression is 

one of the largest modifiable risk factors

 Thus, understanding the link between depression and dementia and accounting for depression in dementia prevention strategies in women is essential.

Novel, women-focused solutions can reduce the impact of depression and increase global resilience. As a recent 

 finds, women’s health solutions often remain siloed to pregnancy and reproductive-related issues.

There is a dearth of women-focused solutions for chronic health and behavioral health and an even larger gap for solutions at the intersection of both.

 Women-focused solutions that include technology, drug development, and devices are urgently needed. Additionally, convergence solutions that combine multiple domains and technologies, such as blending platform and frontier technologies, are key.

Developing women-focused solutions is not only a medical and moral imperative—there is also significant economic and commercial upside. Emergen Research projects that the global market for women’s health will reach $60 billion in 2027.

 Additionally, women are the chief medical officers of society, controlling 80% of health care decisions in the United States and spending 29% more per capita on health care compared to men.

By developing women-focused solutions for depression that account for various factors, including the relationship between depression with heart disease and dementia in women, we can build a more resilient society and world.

is an Atlantic Fellow for Equity in Brain Health at Global Brain Health Institute, a Thiel Fellow at Stanford University, and a Steering Committee member for OECD-PRODEO Institute Neuroscience-inspired Policy Initiative.

is CEO of PRODEO and cofounder of the PRODEO Institute.

is founder and chief director of the Center for BrainHealth at UT Dallas. She is a distinguished professor at UT Dallas.

is a reproductive endocrinologist at Baylor College of Medicine. He is an active member of the American Society of Reproductive Medicine and the North American Menopause Society, with a special interest in the role of steroid hormones on cognitive function. 

is deputy secretary of public health in the Victorian Department of Health and Honorary Melbourne Enterprise Professor with the University of Melbourne. 

is a NHMRC senior principal research fellow, Alfred Deakin professor of psychiatry at Deakin University, and director of the Institute for Mental and Physical Health and Clinical Translation 

is CEO and cofounder of the Women’s Brain Project.

is colead of the OECD-PRODEO Institute NIPI.He is a senior fellow in brain capital for the Meadows Mental Health Policy Institute. He holds adjunct or advisory roles with IMPACT at Deakin University, the Heka Fund, Brain Health Nexus at Cohen Veterans Bioscience, GBHI, Baylor College of Medicine, Latin American Brain Health (BrainLat), Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez, Chile, University of Texas Health Sciences Center at Houston, the Davos Alzheimer’s Collaborative and the Euro-Mediterranean Economists Association.

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Midlife vs late-life depressive symptoms and risk of dementia: differential effects for Alzheimer disease and vascular dementia.

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Use of postmenopausal hormone therapy and risk of Alzheimer’s disease in Finland: nationwide case-control study.

5. Schmidt PJ, Martinez PE, Nieman LK, et al. 

Premenstrual dysphoric disorder symptoms following ovarian suppression: triggered by change in ovarian steroid levels but not continuous stable levels.

6. Hantsoo L, Grillon C, Sammel M, et al. 

Response to sertraline is associated with reduction in anxiety-potentiated startle in premenstrual dysphoric disorder.

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Prevalence and characteristics of sexual violence, stalking, and intimate partner violence victimization--national intimate partner and sexual violence survey, United States, 2011.

When pandemics clash: gendered violence-related traumatic brain injuries in women since COVID-19.

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https://www.un.org/africarenewal/magazine/november-december-2020/gender-based-violence-we-must-flatten-curve-shadow-pandemic

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Societal Impact of Research Funding for Women’s Health in Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Dementias

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Dementia prevention, intervention, and care: 2020 report of the Lancet Commission.

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https://rockhealth.com/insights/building-comprehensive-women-digital-health-eight-sectors-serving-women-needs/

16. Femtech Market By Type (Devices, Software, Services), By End-Use (Direct-to-Consumer, Hospitals, Fertility Clinics, Surgical Centers, Diagnostic Centers), By Application (Reproductive Health, Pregnancy & Nursing Care, Pelvic & Uterine Healthcare), By Region, Forecasts to 2027. EMERGEN Research. June 2021. Accessed May 12, 2022. 

https://www.emergenresearch.com/industry-report/femtech-market

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https://www.frost.com/frost-perspectives/femtechtime-digital-revolution-womens-health-market/

18. Gambon E, Stotz C, Sandhu N. Femtech is expansive—it’s time to start treating it as such. Rock Health. August 3, 2020. Accessed May 12, 2022. 

https://rockhealth.com/femtech-is-expansive-its-time-to-start-treating-it-as-such/

Here’s why we should be paying special attention to women's depression treatment.  

Erin Smith

Articles

Advancing Brain Capital: Achievements, Lessons, and Next Steps

Cybercriminal Exploitation of Cognitive Biases: A Brain Capital Perspective

Mind-Body Resilience for Women: A Focus on Depression

Building a Resilient Future: Addressing Youth Mental Health

Violence Against Women and Acquired Brain Injuries

Brain Capital: An Emerging Investment Opportunity