Hi friend,

Charlie Health, Talkspace and Grow published new research. GLP-1 medications were found to be linked to lower rates of psychiatric hospitalisation. Paediatric behavioural health spending reached 40% of all US child medical expenditures in 2022. And Alto Neuroscience raised $120M.

There’s lots to cover. So let’s get into it.

⏺️ Alto Neuroscience raised $120M in a private placement financing. The biopharma business will use the funds to advance ALTO-207 (a treatment focused on TRD that they acquired last year) through a planned Phase 3 study. Alto also recently announced strong annual results citing progress on several treatments. Their share price is up almost 10X since this time last year. (link)

⏺️ Collegium Pharmaceutical is acquiring Corium's ADHD drug Azstarys for $650M. Collegium will pay $650M up-front to add this ADHD drug to their portfolio, with another $135M being paid if certain milestones are achieved. (link)

⏺️ Mave Health raised $2.1M for their at-home tDCS headset. The Indian-based business will use the funds to expand manufacturing capabilities and launch their headset in the US and India. (link)

⏺️ BrainsWay invests additional $1M in Axis Integrated Mental Health. BrainsWay made a $2.3M investment into the US-based Managed Service Organisation last year with this latest round delivered on the back of Axis hitting revenue targets. (link)

⏺️ Doro received $250K in Mitacs funding to develop AI tools for between-appointment patient support. The company analyses patient-reported data to maintain continuous touchpoints after clinical appointments end. (link)

⏺️ In the US, the VA announced $112M in funding for suicide prevention grants for veterans. Funding will be available to community organisations serving veterans through the Staff Sergeant Parker Gordon Fox programme and applications will close on June 12th. (link)

⏺️ Pine Rest opened a $98M paediatric behavioural health centre featuring Michigan's first children's psychiatric urgent care. The facility will have 66 inpatient beds and intends to offer an alternative to emergency room visits for paediatric mental health crises. (link)

⏺️ Sword Health launched a unified AI Care Platform. The platform brings together their MSK, women's health, mental health, and cardiometabolic programmes under a single clinical system with shared patient data and care navigation. Sword LOVE a product release. I’m interested to see where they go in the mental health space and what sort of results they deliver. (link)

⏺️ SocialRx (formerly Art Pharmacy) announced new partnerships with three Federally Qualified Community Health Centers. Fenway Health, NeighborHealth, and Family Health Center of Worcester will all partner with SocialRx to connect patients to community arts, culture, and nature activities as part of their mental health care. (link)

⏺️ The Broad Institute received a $280M commitment for psychiatric genetics research. The grant from the Stanley Family Foundation brings total funding to the Broad's Stanley Center for Psychiatric Research to over $1B. The centre focuses on the genetics of schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. (link)

⏺️ North Carolina launched a statewide online mental health bed registry connected to the 988 crisis hotline. The system shows real-time availability of inpatient psychiatric beds to help connect people in crisis to care more quickly. (link)

⏺️ Oregon passed SB 1546 regulating AI companion chatbots. The bill passed both chambers with near-unanimous support and now goes to Governor Kotek for signature. It requires AI chatbots to detect suicidal and self-harm ideation and refer users to crisis resources, disclose that users are talking to an AI, and ban features designed to create emotional dependency in minors. (link)

⏺️ Paediatric behavioural health spending in the US nearly doubled as a share of total child health spending between 2011 and 2022, rising from 22% to 40%. A JAMA Pediatrics study found families paid $2.9B out-of-pocket for children's mental health services in 2022, with costs growing at more than twice the rate of other medical expenses. Families with a child receiving behavioural health services were 40% more likely to face extreme financial burden. (link)

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⏺️ Talkspace published a study finding high adoption and incremental productivity gains from its AI note-writing tool, Smart Notes. Over nearly a year, 162 full-time and 1,366 contracted Talkspace therapists used Smart Notes to generate over 286,000 notes. Adoption was high - 94% of full-time therapists used it weekly, and clinicians seemed to respond well to the product - 98% of quality ratings were positive. It also appeared to improve productivity, but not by much. When compared to before they used Smart Notes, full-time therapists completed 6.5% more sessions per week (15.5 to 16.5 sessions) and carried 7.8% more clients (18.0 to 19.4 clients), without working more hours . Yes, this study has limitations but my takeaway is that AI notes and admin support can improve therapist productivity, but that the gains have a low ceiling. I believe we are already close to the case load limit an individual therapist can hold and that the marginal return to more admin support is limited. Entirely new care models that use AI agents to actually deliver parts of care could be different, however. (link)

⏺️ Grow Therapy published a real-world outcomes study covering over 159,000 patients. 69% of patients completed three or more visits. Among those with enough data to measure clinical outcomes — about 45% of the full sample — 59% showed a clinically meaningful improvement in depression and 63% in anxiety. The most novel finding was around provider selection: patients who chose a provider based on clinical specialty had modestly better clinical outcomes, while patients who selected based on provider identity (such as race, religion, or sexual orientation) were 11–14% more likely to stay in treatment longer. The findings are exploratory but the dataset is one of the largest published in digital mental health to date. (link)

⏺️ Charlie Health released its 2026 annual outcomes report. The virtual intensive outpatient provider expanded its services to patients aged 8 to 64 and launched a dedicated substance use disorder programme in 2025. The report found patients showed meaningful reductions in anxiety, depression, self-harm, suicidal ideation, and substance use. One year after completing treatment, Charlie clients maintained a 43% reduction in depression symptoms and a 40% reduction in anxiety symptoms. (link)

⏺️ Anthropic research finds emotional support as a major use case for AI. The 81,000-person global study on what people want from AI found that 6% of respondents reported using AI primarily for emotional support, with some describing using it late at night when human support was not available. (link)

⏺️ Mustafa Suleyman published a Nature opinion piece arguing that AI systems are designed in ways that exploit human empathy. Suleyman (the CEO of Microsoft AI) argued that as AI becomes more skilled at mimicking human emotion and consciousness, new design standards and laws are needed to prevent users from mistaking AI for sentient beings. (link)

⏺️ A study found that general-purpose AI chatbots may worsen OCD and anxiety symptoms in some users. The paper identified specific ways chatbots can reinforce compulsions and avoidance behaviours, including by providing reassurance when users seek it, rather than helping users work through their symptoms. (link)

⏺️ A preprint backed by Microsoft Research argued that overly cautious AI crisis responses may harm users. The paper found that AI systems that respond to mental health disclosures with blanket refusals or standard hotline referrals may fail users who need more than a phone number. The authors proposed design principles drawn from community peer support models. (link)

⏺️ GLP-1 medications were linked to lower rates of psychiatric hospitalisation and suicidal behaviour in people with depression and anxiety. A Lancet Psychiatry study of nearly 100,000 Swedish patients found semaglutide use was associated with a 42% lower risk of psychiatric deterioration, 44% lower depression risk, and 38% lower anxiety risk compared to periods of non-use. This paper adds to the growing literature around GLP-1s and behavioural health. (link)

⏺️ A study found that combining medication, therapy, and TMS produced depression improvement in 76% of patients in 44 days. The naturalistic study followed patients receiving all three treatments at the same facility and tracked outcomes over the treatment period. (link)

⏺️ A randomised trial found that low-frequency TMS improved social, cognitive, and sensory outcomes in children with autism spectrum disorder. The 9-week trial showed particular improvements in sensory hypersensitivity. (link)

⏺️ A retrospective study found that online group ketogenic therapy was associated with improvements in depression and anxiety. The ketogenic diet has attracted growing research interest as a metabolic intervention for mental health conditions with this study adding to a growing evidence base. (link)

⏺️ AbbVie's psychedelic drug bretisilocin received Priority Medicines designation from the European Medicines Agency. This is the first psychedelic compound to receive this designation, which is equivalent to the FDA's Breakthrough Therapy status and provides accelerated development support. (link)

That’s all for this week.

Keep fighting the good fight!

Steve Duke

Founder of Hemingway

P.S. Want to support my work? Consider becoming a Hemingway Pro member.