The Neurogenesis Project
Research-backed articles on brain recovery, neuroplasticity, addiction neuroscience, and cognitive optimization from our clinical team.
OCD is a circuit problem, not a character flaw. A neurologist explains the brain loop behind it, how stress and inflammation feed it, and what treatment works.
Dr. Sean Orr · November 10, 2026
Read More →A Nature Mental Health study found a resting-state fMRI pattern that predicted craving relief from rTMS in cocaine use disorder. What it means for rehab.
Dr. Drew Edwards · November 10, 2026
Read More →Three 2026 studies link estrogen exposure to healthier brain aging. What a neurologist who has prescribed HRT for brain health for years makes of the data.
Dr. Sean C. Orr, M.D. · November 5, 2026
Read More →A Fudan University team traced vagus nerve stimulation's pain relief to a specific brainstem-to-PAG pathway, explaining for the first time how VNS quiets pain and negative affect.
Dr. Sean Orr · October 31, 2026
Read More →A JAMA Psychiatry trial in 86 adults on methadone or buprenorphine found mindfulness training changed prefrontal responses to opioid cues.
Dr. Drew Edwards · October 29, 2026
Read More →A new JAMA Network Open study estimates 74.5% of NFL players who died 2008-2023 had CTE. A neurologist on keeping players out and treating the biology.
Dr. Sean C. Orr, M.D. · October 28, 2026
Read More →An MRI study of 167 adults found heavy drinking can blur the brain signature of childhood trauma, which may explain why that history gets missed in treatment.
Dr. Drew Edwards · October 27, 2026
Read More →A neurologist splits the question in three: does NAD+ raise NAD+, does that change the body, and does it help you function? Trial by trial, negatives included.
Dr. Sean C. Orr, M.D. · October 27, 2026
Read More →A fellowship-trained neurologist explains what NAD+ IV therapy is, how it works in the brain, what the evidence shows, side effects, cost, and who it is for.
Dr. Sean C. Orr, M.D. · October 25, 2026
Read More →Brown researchers traced hunger-driven alcohol seeking to a single neuron in fruit flies. What it may mean for cravings and relapse in people in recovery.
Dr. Drew Edwards · October 22, 2026
Read More →A Penn autopsy in JAMA found far less tau where amyloid had been cleared. Here is what that means for timing, biomarkers, and early brain protection now.
Dr. Sean C. Orr, M.D. · October 20, 2026
Read More →A Nature Health study of 53,199 brain scans finds substance use changes the brain differently at 20, 35, and 55, and one rehab program cannot treat all three.
Dr. Drew Edwards · October 19, 2026
Read More →Brain failure is the progressive loss of the brain's ability to perform the functions a person depends on to live and work. A clinical definition from Dr. Sean C. Orr, M.D., and what it demands of medicine.
Dr. Sean C. Orr, M.D. · October 19, 2026
Read More →A childhood curiosity, a brother's brain injury, a grandmother lost to stroke, and a career lost and rebuilt: Dr. Sean Orr on why he became a neurologist.
Dr. Sean C. Orr, M.D. · October 18, 2026
Read More →A review of 371 trials finds approved medications help tobacco, opioid and alcohol addiction, yet none exist for methamphetamine or cannabis use disorder.
Dr. Drew Edwards · October 17, 2026
Read More →Northwestern researchers found cannabinoids release a brake on fear neurons in the amygdala, and that dose and stress combine to trigger anxiety in mice.
Dr. Drew Edwards · October 16, 2026
Read More →A Nature atlas from EPFL maps 539 chemically distinct lipid zones in the mouse brain and shows white matter chemistry is far more varied than genes predict.
Dr. Sean C. Orr, M.D. · October 15, 2026
Read More →A PLOS Medicine study of 48,598 people found alcohol and tobacco addiction age the brain on MRI, with effect sizes that approach Alzheimer's disease.
Dr. Drew Edwards · October 14, 2026
Read More →A Nature Neuroscience mouse study found tau-driven neurodegeneration depends on T cells primed in neck lymph nodes. Block that step and the brain is spared.
Dr. Sean C. Orr, M.D. · September 29, 2026
Read More →Heroin and meth force dopamine terminals into an emergency energy mode food never triggers. Blocking it stopped drug reward in mice and spared natural reward.
Dr. Drew W. Edwards, Ed.D, M.S. · September 24, 2026
Read More →Stanford traced the forebrain and the hindbrain to two progenitor cells that never overlap. The brain stem is a separate organ, and most brain care ignores it.
Dr. Sean C. Orr, M.D. · September 22, 2026
Read More →A CDC simulation projects 96,799 opioid overdose deaths through 2028. The most efficient prevention it found was a bystander with naloxone who knows the signs.
Dr. Drew W. Edwards, Ed.D, M.S. · September 17, 2026
Read More →A UCLA team built a brain aging index from resting-state MRI in 1,462 adults. Higher scores tracked with weaker working memory, low mood, and gut metabolites.
Dr. Sean C. Orr, M.D. · September 15, 2026
Read More →A Brown University trial found five chronic-disease biomarkers already elevated in healthy heavy drinkers averaging age 25. What the body records this early, and why this is the moment to act.
Dr. Drew W. Edwards, Ed.D, M.S. · September 10, 2026
Read More →TIMP2 is a blood protein that falls with age and revives memory in aged mice. What the evidence supports, what it does not, and how it bears on our work.
Dr. Sean C. Orr, M.D. · September 4, 2026
Read More →A Scottish cohort of 40,753 people on methadone or buprenorphine linked prescribed benzodiazepines to higher death risk mainly after patients left treatment.
Dr. Drew W. Edwards, Ed.D, M.S. · September 3, 2026
Read More →Columbia read 495,000 hippocampal nuclei from 30 donors and found new-neuron production stalls in untreated major depression. What it means in clinic.
Dr. Sean C. Orr, M.D. · September 1, 2026
Read More →Mice that spent 28 days without alcohol later drank more of it laced with quinine, and a stress-circuit signal marked which animals would do so.
Dr. Drew W. Edwards, Ed.D, M.S. · August 25, 2026
Read More →A Lancet Public Health analysis of 4.2 million adults found leisure exercise linked to 24% lower dementia risk, while physical work was linked to 20% higher.
Dr. Sean C. Orr, M.D. · August 20, 2026
Read More →A 26-year-old man was discharged from an Oregon hospital as purely behavioral and died 42 minutes later. What brain imaging actually says about that call.
Dr. Drew W. Edwards, Ed.D, M.S. · August 19, 2026
Read More →Research in Neuron shows early-life stress leaves a physical mark on DNA packaging in the dopamine neurons of mice, priming the brain to overreact to stress as an adult.
Dr. Drew W. Edwards, Ed.D, M.S. · August 18, 2026
Read More →GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic keep reducing alcohol and drug use. New circuit research points to the lateral septum, the brain region where craving may live.
Dr. Drew W. Edwards, Ed.D, M.S. · August 13, 2026
Read More →A Rutgers trial put 47 women on the same calorie deficit. Both groups lost 15 pounds. Only the group eating in an 8-hour window improved on cognitive tests.
Dr. Sean C. Orr, M.D. · July 30, 2026
Read More →An Arizona State study found opioid withdrawal shuts down the genes that build myelin, the insulation on the brain's wiring. It reframes early recovery.
Dr. Drew W. Edwards, Ed.D, M.S. · July 28, 2026
Read More →The Neuroeconomy is the regime where cognitive capacity, not muscle, sets productivity. A clinical definition of the term and what it demands of medicine.
Dr. Sean Orr · July 20, 2026
Read More →A new Lancet trial found once-weekly semaglutide cut heavy drinking days by 41% in patients with alcohol use disorder. The reason lives in the brain's reward circuit.
Dr. Drew Edwards · July 16, 2026
Read More →Dopamine was never the whole story. New imaging, immune, and drug data recast schizophrenia as a treatable neuroinflammatory illness, not a fixed diagnosis.
Dr. Sean Orr · July 10, 2026
Read More →A Translational Psychiatry meta-analysis of 53 brain scans found the same reward-circuit disruption across nine addictions. Craving is wiring, not weakness.
Dr. Drew W. Edwards, Ed.D, M.S. · July 10, 2026
Read More →A Harvard team found the brain loses lithium at the earliest stage of Alzheimer's, years before symptoms, and restoring one lithium salt reversed the pathology in mice.
Dr. Sean C. Orr, M.D. · July 10, 2026
Read More →A three-year study of 3,966 adults, ages 19 to 94, found brain health can improve at any age, and the largest gains came from those who started lowest.
Dr. Sean C. Orr, M.D. · July 2, 2026
Read More →A 20-minute focused ultrasound session to the nucleus accumbens cut opioid craving 91% in a new trial. Craving was never weak willpower, it's brain wiring.
Dr. Drew W. Edwards, Ed.D, M.S. · June 30, 2026
Read More →An AI trained on 36,000 sleep studies turned one night of EEG into a single brain health score that predicts cognition, disease, and mortality risk.
Dr. Sean C. Orr, M.D. · June 25, 2026
Read More →Autopsies of 1,781 brains found even moderate drinkers had 60% higher odds of vascular brain lesions. A routine MRI often misses the damage.
Dr. Drew W. Edwards, Ed.D, M.S. · June 25, 2026
Read More →Addiction was never just a dopamine problem. A 2026 Frontiers review maps six brain systems behind craving, explaining why single-drug treatment falls short.
Dr. Drew Edwards, EdD · June 24, 2026
Read More →Hashimoto's can leave you foggy and exhausted even when your thyroid labs read normal. The autoimmune inflammation reaches the brain, and levothyroxine does not touch it.
Dr. Sean Orr · June 22, 2026
Read More →Methamphetamine has no approved medication. A new Science Signaling study finds inflammation drives the meth high, pointing to arthritis drugs as a treatment.
Dr. Drew W. Edwards, Ed.D, M.S. · June 18, 2026
Read More →Gut feelings, butterflies, a punch to the gut. The vagus nerve makes that language literal, and new work on COVID, stress, and GLP-1 drugs shows why it matters.
Dr. Sean C. Orr, M.D. · June 17, 2026
Read More →A PNAS twin study identifies two gut bacteria that directly trigger MS-like disease in mice, reframing multiple sclerosis as a gut-brain axis condition.
Dr. Sean Orr · June 14, 2026
Read More →Early recovery is a window of rapid brain change most programs can't measure. A new Frontiers paper shows how to track the recovering brain in real time.
Dr. Drew W. Edwards, Ed.D, M.S. · June 11, 2026
Read More →Rheumatoid arthritis can drive brain fog, fatigue, and amplified pain through inflammation that reaches the brain. Here is how we find it and treat it.
Dr. Sean Orr · June 10, 2026
Read More →A Texas A&M study in Neuron found the brain keeps the relapse memory and the recovery memory side by side. Sobriety doesn't erase craving. It out-competes it.
Dr. Drew Edwards, EdD · June 9, 2026
Read More →A 2026 Cell Metabolism study ties depression to failed creatine absorption in the gut, not low serotonin. Here is what restoring brain energy looks like.
Dr. Sean C. Orr, M.D. · June 5, 2026
Read More →A placebo-controlled Oxford trial found a single dose of pitolisant, which raises brain histamine, improved memory, working memory, and learning from loss.
Dr. Sean C. Orr, M.D. · June 4, 2026
Read More →A 2026 University of Iowa study shows acetazolamide, an old glaucoma drug, reverses the synaptic rewiring in the reward center that makes opioid relapse so hard to prevent.
Dr. Drew Edwards, EdD · June 2, 2026
Read More →Stanford and Buffalo researchers classify POTS, ME/CFS, and Long COVID as neuroimmune disorders driven by brainstem inflammation and immune dysregulation.
Dr. Sean C. Orr, M.D. · June 2, 2026
Read More →The ovary is a neurological organ. Menopause produces measurable neurodegeneration in frontal and temporal brain regions. The evidence says we can treat it.
Dr. Sean C. Orr, M.D. · May 30, 2026
Read More →A new Lancet study from UCSF detected Alzheimer's pathology in 6% of dementia-free 61-year-olds and predicted accelerated cognitive decline 5 years later.
Dr. Sean C. Orr, M.D. · May 30, 2026
Read More →A new EEG study from Manchester shows alcohol recovery rewires reward-feedback signals over years and exposes a brain trait present before the first drink.
Dr. Drew W. Edwards, Ed.D, M.S. · May 28, 2026
Read More →Folate receptor alpha autoantibodies block folate transport into the brain. The test is a blood draw. The fix is leucovorin. From autism to dementia.
Dr. Sean C. Orr, M.D. · May 25, 2026
Read More →PET imaging shows dopamine recovery takes 12 to 17 months of abstinence, not the 28 days insurance pays for. The standard timeline doesn't match the biology.
Dr. Drew W. Edwards, Ed.D, M.S. · May 21, 2026
Read More →A 2026 Nature Metabolism study identified irisin, released by muscles during exercise, as the direct molecular signal protecting neurons from MS damage.
Dr. Sean C. Orr, M.D. · May 21, 2026
Read More →A systematic review presented at ASAM 2026 found ketamine can address depression and alcohol use disorder at the same time. What this means for recovery.
Dr. Drew W. Edwards, Ed.D, M.S. · May 19, 2026
Read More →Arachnoiditis scars the same tissue that absorbs cerebrospinal fluid. The downstream picture often mirrors normal pressure hydrocephalus, and gets missed.
Dr. Sean C. Orr, M.D. · May 16, 2026
Read More →A new brain imaging study shows methylphenidate boosts cognition only in brains with the right baseline dopamine. Why precision matters before any pill.
Dr. Sean C. Orr, M.D. · May 14, 2026
Read More →A 2026 Lancet trial of semaglutide for alcohol use disorder cut heavy drinking by 41 percent. The number needed to treat beat every approved AUD med.
Dr. Drew W. Edwards, Ed.D, M.S. · May 12, 2026
Read More →A 20-year follow-up of the ACTIVE study found cognitive speed training cut dementia risk by 25%. The bigger story is what amplifies that effect.
Dr. Sean C. Orr, M.D. · May 11, 2026
Read More →A 12-month RCT cut brain age by nearly a year with 150 minutes of weekly cardio. The textbook mechanism, BDNF, didn't budge. That tells us something.
Dr. Sean C. Orr, M.D. · May 7, 2026
Read More →Three to four daily cups lengthened telomeres and shaved five years off biological age in adults with severe mental illness, a new King's study found.
Dr. Drew W. Edwards, Ed.D, M.S. · May 5, 2026
Read More →Addiction hijacks the brain's survival circuitry before willpower gets a vote. Treating it without addressing neurology is resetting a bone without an X-ray.
Dr. Drew W. Edwards, Ed.D, M.S. & Dr. Sean C. Orr, M.D. · May 2, 2026
Read More →A new University of Minnesota study uses gene therapy to deliver agmatine to the spinal cord and prevents opioid tolerance from developing in the first place.
Dr. Drew W. Edwards, Ed.D, M.S. · April 30, 2026
Read More →A 2017 PET-fMRI study tracked dopamine in mothers watching their infants. The circuit that fires for a baby is the one drugs hijack. That changes recovery.
Dr. Drew W. Edwards, Ed.D, M.S. · April 26, 2026
Read More →Precision neuromedicine integrates pharmacogenomics, biomarkers, genetics, neurotransmitter metabolites, MRI, and biometrics. No single test is enough.
Dr. Sean C. Orr, M.D. · April 24, 2026
Read More →A randomized crossover trial in Scientific Reports found one month of HEPA filtration improved executive function 12% in adults over 40. Mechanism explained.
Dr. Sean C. Orr, M.D. · April 23, 2026
Read More →A WashU study in eNeuro shows a stimulating environment cuts fentanyl use and stress-triggered relapse in rats. What this means for real recovery programs.
Dr. Drew W. Edwards, Ed.D, M.S. · April 21, 2026
Read More →The regulatory door on compounded peptides is starting to open. For brain medicine, that is a meaningful shift physicians should be thinking about now.
Dr. Sean C. Orr, M.D. · April 20, 2026
Read More →CADASIL is the most common inherited cerebral small vessel disease, and one of the most underdiagnosed. New NOTCH3 data show a far broader spectrum.
Dr. Sean C. Orr, M.D. · April 17, 2026
Read More →AI exocortex systems build personalized cognitive baselines over years of interaction, detecting subtle decline before any clinical test catches it.
Dr. Sean C. Orr, M.D. · April 17, 2026
Read More →A 2026 Science Advances study shows DeltaFosB rewires the hippocampus during chronic cocaine use, driving relapse long after someone stops using.
Dr. Drew W. Edwards, Ed.D, M.S. · April 16, 2026
Read More →The first U.S. patient received lab-grown dopamine neurons for Parkinson's in a Weill Cornell Phase IIa trial. Neural cell replacement is getting closer.
Dr. Sean C. Orr, M.D. · April 13, 2026
Read More →New brain age biomarkers and neuroplasticity research are turning cognitive decline from a vague worry into a measurable, treatable problem.
Dr. Sean C. Orr, M.D. · April 9, 2026
Read More →A 2026 eLife study maps the brain pathway linking stress to alcohol relapse, showing why rigid recovery patterns are biology, not a failure of willpower.
Dr. Drew W. Edwards, Ed.D, M.S. · April 7, 2026
Read More →Proliv™Rx is the first FDA-approved at-home brain stimulation device for treatment-resistant depression. Here's what the clinical data shows.
Dr. Sean C. Orr, M.D. · April 3, 2026
Read More →A massive Rutgers-led genetic study confirms addiction risk comes from impulse-control genes, not drug-specific ones. It rewrites how we treat it.
Dr. Drew W. Edwards, Ed.D, M.S. · April 2, 2026
Read More →A new Washington University study shows p-tau217, a single blood biomarker, can estimate when Alzheimer's symptoms will begin — 15 to 20 years before onset.
Dr. Sean C. Orr, M.D. · March 31, 2026
Read More →GLP-1 receptors sit inside the brain's dopamine reward circuit. In a 2025 randomized trial, semaglutide reduced drinking and craving in adults with alcohol use disorder.
Dr. Drew W. Edwards, Ed.D, M.S. · March 28, 2026
Read More →MRI normal. Cognitive testing borderline. Diagnosis: 'mild cognitive impairment, probably age-related.' That gap is where integrative neurology lives.
Dr. Sean C. Orr, M.D. · March 15, 2026
Read More →Eriksson's 1998 discovery that adults grow new hippocampal neurons reshaped neuroscience. The therapeutic implication was clear. Reality is more complicated.
Dr. Sean C. Orr, M.D. · March 1, 2026
Read More →Standard imaging shows structure. Advanced techniques show function, connectivity, and metabolism. Together they reveal what no single test can see.
Dr. Sean C. Orr, M.D. · February 1, 2026
Read More →The subgranular zone of the hippocampal dentate gyrus is where adult neurogenesis happens. The signaling is known. Clinical applications are catching up.
Dr. Sean C. Orr, M.D. · December 7, 2025
Read More →Two 52-year-olds can be decades apart neurologically. One has the brain of a 42-year-old; the other looks 65. Advanced imaging reveals the mechanisms behind it.
Dr. Sean C. Orr, M.D. · November 16, 2025
Read More →'Brain rejuvenation' has been colonized by wellness marketing to mean almost nothing. The underlying biology is real, measurable, and worth taking seriously.
Dr. Sean C. Orr, M.D. · October 26, 2025
Read More →'My MRI was normal, so my cognitive problems must be psychological.' A normal structural MRI rules out tumors and strokes. It says little about the rest.
Dr. Sean C. Orr, M.D. · September 21, 2025
Read More →Addiction rewires the brain's error-detection system. The elaborate narratives addicted persons construct aren't lies — they're a brain that's gone offline.
Dr. Drew W. Edwards, Ed.D, M.S. & Dr. Sean C. Orr, M.D. · July 23, 2025
Read More →Regenerative neurotherapies sit in a strange space. The biology is legitimate. The evidence is growing. The marketing is often absurd. Here's what holds up.
Dr. Sean C. Orr, M.D. · May 25, 2025
Read More →Conventional neurology saves lives in crisis but fails at preventing decline. Integrative neurology combines pharmacology with metabolic and regenerative care.
Dr. Sean C. Orr, M.D. · May 18, 2025
Read More →For much of the twentieth century scientists believed the brain could not repair itself. Modern neuroscience has proven otherwise.
Dr. Drew W. Edwards, Ed.D, M.S. · March 6, 2025
Read More →The default mode network and the executive control network suppress each other. Peak performance needs both, coordinated. Most brain-training apps ignore this.
Dr. Sean C. Orr, M.D. · March 2, 2025
Read More →The economy now rewards cognitive capacity, not physical capacity. Your brain is the asset — and most high performers are burning it out.
Dr. Sean C. Orr, M.D. & Dr. Drew W. Edwards, Ed.D, M.S. · September 23, 2020
Read More →Intervention isn't a TV spectacle. It's a structured clinical process designed to work with the addicted brain, not against it. Here's how it actually works.
Dr. Drew W. Edwards, Ed.D, M.S. & Dr. Sean C. Orr, M.D. · September 2, 2020
Read More →Obesity is a metabolic disease, not a willpower problem. The brain's satiety signals misfire through leptin resistance — understanding why changes treatment.
Dr. Drew W. Edwards, Ed.D, M.S. & Dr. Sean C. Orr, M.D. · July 3, 2020
Read More →Unforgiveness isn't a moral failing—it's a neurobiological state. The ventral striatum rewards punishment through the same circuitry hijacked by addiction.
Dr. Drew W. Edwards, Ed.D, M.S. & Dr. Sean C. Orr, M.D. · May 26, 2020
Read More →A clinical deficiency in dopamine, the brain's salience neurotransmitter, explains addiction, depression, anxiety, ADHD, and overeating through one mechanism.
Dr. Drew W. Edwards, Ed.D, M.S. & Dr. Sean C. Orr, M.D. · April 5, 2020
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