The Neurogenesis Project

11/03/2026

When patients see their own brain scans, many feel relief for the first time. They are not crazy and they are not lazy. Addiction is a brain disease, and naming it that way changes how people see themselves and their recovery.

Watch Dr. Drew Edwards explain: https://youtube.com/shorts/-H0AveO5--o

Created with AI assistance.

When patients see their own brain scans, many feel relief for the f...

11/01/2026

Researchers just answered a question pain medicine has been asking for decades: how does stimulating the vagus nerve actually reduce pain?

A team at Fudan University mapped a specific set of brainstem neurons that connect the vagal relay station directly to the brain's pain modulation center — and found this same pathway also governs the emotional distress that chronic pain brings with it.

Dr. Sean Orr breaks down what this means for treatment, and why combining neuronavigated TMS with vagal nerve stimulation is now a precision approach, not a shot in the dark.

https://www.neurogenesisproject.com/blog/vagus-nerve-brainstem-pathway-pain-anxiety

What has your experience been with chronic pain management? Has anything actually worked?

10/31/2026

Methadone and buprenorphine keep people alive. But what happens when a craving hits anyway?

A new JAMA Psychiatry trial from Mount Sinai gave 86 adults in residential treatment either Mindfulness-Oriented Recovery Enhancement or a matched supportive therapy, all while they stayed on their medication. Brain scans showed different prefrontal responses to drug cues in the mindfulness group, and about four months later that group had gained more abstinence time.

Dr. Drew Edwards explains what the researchers found, what the study can't tell us yet, and what to ask a treatment program: https://www.neurogenesisproject.com/blog/mindfulness-oriented-recovery-enhancement-opioid-craving-brain

Have you or someone you love found that medication alone left something out?

Created with AI assistance.

10/30/2026

Three out of four. That is the new estimate for how many former NFL players who died between 2008 and 2023 had CTE, from a Boston University study published today.

When Dr. Sean Orr was a treating neurologist for professional football players, he took a lot of heat for keeping injured players off the field. In this article he explains what the study does and does not show, what is happening inside the brain after repeated hits, and what former players and their families can do now.

https://neurogenesisproject.com/blog/nfl-cte-three-in-four-players-neurologist

Did you or someone in your family play football? Have you ever had your brain health checked because of it?

Created with AI assistance.

10/29/2026

Why does a childhood history so often stay hidden until someone is years into recovery?

A new MRI study in Addiction Neuroscience may add a physical reason. In adults without drinking problems, childhood maltreatment left a measurable footprint in the inferior frontal gyrus, a brain region involved in stopping an action. In adults with alcohol use disorder, that footprint was missing. The researchers suggest years of alcohol-related tissue loss may cover it over.

The study has limits. It scanned people once and relied on self-reported history, so it cannot say what caused what. What it does support is asking about childhood more than once, and without judgment, as the brain recovers.

Dr. Drew Edwards breaks it down here: https://www.neurogenesisproject.com/blog/childhood-trauma-alcohol-use-disorder-brain-structure

Created with AI assistance.

Has anyone you know opened up about their past only after a long stretch of sobriety?

10/28/2026

A patient told me last month that her daughter calls NAD+ therapy a scam and her best friend says it changed her life. She wanted to know who was right.

Neither, exactly. The evidence that NAD+ therapy raises NAD+ is solid. The evidence that it changes the body is real but uneven. The evidence that it makes you feel and function better is the part still being built. I wrote out the whole ladder, study by study, including the trials that came back negative.

Created with AI assistance.

https://neurogenesisproject.com/blog/does-nad-therapy-actually-work-evidence

What have you been told about NAD+? Who told you?

10/27/2026

Is NAD+ IV therapy real medicine or an expensive bag of saline? A patient asked me that last spring, and the honest answer is more interesting than either option.

The evidence that NAD+ matters for brain energy is strong. The evidence that an IV infusion treats any specific condition is still early. I wrote a full guide that separates the two, covers what an infusion actually feels like (and why the chest pressure happens), who should skip it, and exactly what we charge.

Created with AI assistance.

https://neurogenesisproject.com/blog/what-is-nad-iv-therapy-neurologist-guide

Have you tried NAD+, by IV or as a supplement? What did you notice?

10/22/2026

Would you want to know your Alzheimer's biology at 55 instead of finding out at 70?

A new JAMA autopsy study from Penn followed one man who received an amyloid-clearing drug. Where plaque was cleared, tau was nearly absent. Where plaque stayed, tau and inflammation were far worse. It is a single case, but both regions sat in the same brain.

Dr. Sean Orr explains why timing may matter more than the drug, and what an early workup can show: https://www.neurogenesisproject.com/blog/amyloid-clearance-tau-autopsy-jama

Created with AI assistance.

If a simple blood test could show your risk a decade early, would you take it?

10/21/2026

Is addiction one brain condition, or three? A new Nature Health study of more than 53,000 brain scans suggests the answer depends on whether the person is 20, 35, or 55. Younger users showed reward circuits ahead of the brain's brakes, mid-life users showed an enlarged craving network, and older users showed cumulative volume loss. Dr. Drew Edwards explains what that means for treatment: https://www.neurogenesisproject.com/blog/substance-use-brain-changes-by-age-nature-health

Created with AI assistance.

If you or someone you love went through a program that treated everyone the same way, did it fit?

10/20/2026

Three FDA-approved medications exist for alcohol use disorder, and many people in treatment have never been offered one.

A new review in CNS Drugs pooled 371 randomized trials. Varenicline more than doubled quit rates for to***co. Naltrexone lowered heavy drinking risk by 19%. But for methamphetamine and cannabis, nothing is approved yet.

Dr. Drew Edwards breaks down what the numbers mean: https://neurogenesisproject.com/blog/addiction-medications-umbrella-review-no-stimulant-drug

Created with AI assistance.

Has anyone in your family been told to try harder before being offered a medication?