Personalized Depression treatment refractory depression
Traditional therapy and medication do not work for many people who are depressed. Personalized treatment may be the answer.
Cue is an intervention platform for digital devices that converts passively collected sensor data from smartphones into customized micro-interventions to improve mental health. We parsed the best medication to treat anxiety and depression-fit personalized ML models for each subject using Shapley values to identify their feature predictors and reveal distinct features that deterministically change mood with time.
Predictors of Mood
Depression is one of the leading causes of mental illness.1 Yet, only half of people suffering from the condition receive treatment1. To improve outcomes, clinicians need to be able to identify and treat patients with the highest probability of responding to certain treatments.
A customized depression treatment is one way to do this. Researchers at the University of Illinois Chicago are developing new methods for predicting which patients will benefit most from certain treatments. They are using mobile phone sensors, a voice assistant with artificial intelligence, and other digital tools. Two grants were awarded that total more than $10 million, they will make use of these tools to identify the biological and behavioral factors that determine the response to antidepressant medication and psychotherapy.
The majority of research done to the present has been focused on sociodemographic and clinical characteristics. These include factors that affect the demographics like age, sex and education, clinical characteristics such as symptoms severity and comorbidities and biological markers such as neuroimaging and genetic variation.
Few studies have used longitudinal data in order to determine mood among individuals. A few studies also take into account the fact that moods can vary significantly between individuals. Therefore, it is crucial to develop methods that allow for the analysis and measurement of individual differences between mood predictors and treatment effects, for instance.
The team’s new approach uses daily, in-person evaluations of mood and lifestyle variables using a smartphone app called AWARE, a cognitive evaluation with the BiAffect app and electroencephalography — an imaging technique that monitors brain activity. This allows the team to develop algorithms that can detect different patterns of behavior and emotion that differ between individuals.
In addition to these methods, the team created a machine learning algorithm to model the changing variables that influence each person’s mood. The algorithm blends the individual differences to produce an individual “digital genotype” for each participant.
This digital phenotype has been correlated with CAT DI scores, a psychometrically validated symptom severity scale. However, the correlation was weak (Pearson’s r = 0.08, the BH-adjusted p-value was 3.55 1003) and varied widely across individuals.
Predictors of Symptoms
Depression is among the world’s leading causes of disability1 but is often not properly diagnosed and treated. In addition, a lack of effective treatments and stigmatization associated with depressive disorders prevent many individuals from seeking help.
To aid in the development of a personalized treatment, it is crucial to determine the predictors of symptoms. However, the methods used to predict symptoms rely on clinical interview, which is unreliable and only detects a small number of symptoms related to depression.2
Machine learning can increase the accuracy of the diagnosis and treatment of depression by combining continuous, digital behavioral phenotypes gathered from smartphones with a validated mental health tracker online (the Computerized Adaptive Testing Depression Inventory CAT-DI). Digital phenotypes can be used to capture a large number of distinct actions and behaviors that are difficult to capture through interviews, and also allow for continuous and high-resolution measurements.
The study included University of California Los Angeles students with mild to severe depression symptoms who were taking part in the Screening and Treatment for Anxiety and Depression program29, which was developed as part of the UCLA Depression Grand Challenge. Participants were sent online for support or to clinical treatment according to the severity of their depression. Those with a score on the CAT-DI of 35 65 were assigned online support via an online peer coach, whereas those with a score of 75 patients were referred to psychotherapy in person.
At the beginning, participants answered the answers to a series of questions concerning their personal demographics and psychosocial features. The questions asked included education, age, sex and gender and financial status, marital status, whether they were divorced or not, current suicidal ideas, intent or attempts, and the frequency with which they consumed alcohol. The CAT-DI was used to assess the severity of depression-related symptoms on a scale ranging from 0-100. The CAT-DI assessment was performed every two weeks for those who received online support and weekly for those who received in-person support.
Predictors of treatment resistant Depression treatment Reaction
Personalized depression treatment is currently a research priority, and many studies aim at identifying predictors that will help clinicians determine the most effective drugs for each individual. In particular, pharmacogenetics identifies genetic variations that affect the way that the body processes antidepressants. This enables doctors to choose drugs that are likely to be most effective for each patient, reducing the time and effort required in trials and errors, while avoid any adverse effects that could otherwise slow advancement.
Another approach that is promising is to build prediction models using multiple data sources, combining data from clinical studies and neural imaging data. These models can be used to identify which variables are most likely to predict a specific outcome, such as whether a medication can help with symptoms or mood. These models can be used to predict the patient’s response to a treatment, allowing doctors maximize the effectiveness.
A new generation of machines employs machine learning techniques such as supervised and classification algorithms such as regularized logistic regression, and tree-based methods to integrate the effects from multiple variables to improve the accuracy of predictive. These models have been proven to be useful in predicting treatment outcomes such as the response to antidepressants. These approaches are becoming more popular in psychiatry and will likely become the standard of future treatment.
In addition to the ML-based prediction models The study of the underlying mechanisms of menopause depression treatment continues. Recent findings suggest that the disorder is associated with dysfunctions in specific neural circuits. This suggests that an individualized treatment for depression will depend on targeted therapies that restore normal function to these circuits.
Internet-based interventions are a way to achieve this. They can offer more customized and personalized experience for patients. One study found that an internet-based program improved symptoms and provided a better quality life for MDD patients. A controlled study that was randomized to an individualized treatment for depression found that a substantial percentage of patients experienced sustained improvement as well as fewer side consequences.
Predictors of adverse effects
A major challenge in personalized depression treatment is predicting which antidepressant medications will cause very little or no side effects. Many patients are prescribed various drugs before they find a drug that is both effective and well-tolerated. Pharmacogenetics offers a fascinating new way to take an effective and precise approach to selecting antidepressant treatments.
A variety of predictors are available to determine which antidepressant to prescribe, including genetic variants, phenotypes of patients (e.g. gender, sex or ethnicity) and the presence of comorbidities. However finding the most reliable and accurate predictors for a particular treatment will probably require controlled, randomized trials with significantly larger numbers of participants than those normally enrolled in clinical trials. This is because the identifying of moderators or interaction effects can be a lot more difficult in trials that take into account a single episode of treatment per person, rather than multiple episodes of treatment over a period of time.
Additionally, the prediction of a patient’s reaction to a particular medication is likely to need to incorporate information regarding symptoms and comorbidities in addition to the patient’s prior subjective experiences with the effectiveness and tolerability of the medication. At present, only a handful of easily measurable sociodemographic variables as well as clinical variables appear to be consistently associated with response to MDD. These include gender, age, race/ethnicity as well as BMI, SES and the presence of alexithymia.
The application of pharmacogenetics in depression treatment is still in its beginning stages, and many challenges remain. First, it is essential to have a clear understanding and definition of the genetic mechanisms that underlie depression, as well as a clear definition of a reliable indicator of the response to treatment. In addition, ethical issues, such as privacy and the appropriate use of personal genetic information, must be considered carefully. The use of pharmacogenetics may be able to, over the long term help reduce stigma around mental health treatments and improve the outcomes of treatment. However, as with any other psychiatric treatment, careful consideration and planning is required. At present, the most effective method is to provide patients with a variety of effective medications for depression and encourage them to speak openly with their doctors about their experiences and concerns.