A breakthrough in psychiatric medicine offers hope to patients with major depressive disorder. Researchers from Amsterdam UMC and Radboudumc have developed a methodology that allows, with the help of artificial intelligence (AI), to predict in just one week the effectiveness of an antidepressant. By combining the patient’s clinical information with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), the team was able to determine up to 8 weeks earlier whether the drug would have an effect or not.
This is particularly important given that a 6- to 8-week interval is traditionally required to assess the effectiveness of an antidepressant. “This is essential for patients“, emphasizes Professor Liesbeth Reneman, professor of neuroradiology at Amsterdam UMC.
The recent study focuses on sertraline, one of the most commonly prescribed antidepressants in both the United States and Europe. By analyzing clinical and MRI imaging data from 229 patients with major depression, before and after one week of treatment with sertraline or placebo, the researchers developed and applied an algorithm capable of predicting treatment response.
The results showed that only one-third of patients respond positively to the drug, while in two-thirds, sertraline does not produce the expected effect. “With this methodology, we can prevent the unnecessary prescription of sertraline in two-thirds of cases, thereby improving the quality of patient care
Reneman explains.
The algorithm identified blood flow in the anterior cingulate cortex, a brain region involved in emotion regulation, as predictive of sertraline’s effectiveness. Furthermore, the severity of symptoms one week after starting treatment was also found to be a relevant predictive indicator.
This method promises to revolutionize the approach to sertraline treatment, offering the possibility of customizing therapy for each individual patient. Currently, there is no accurate prediction tool, and patients have to wait months to find out if their chosen treatment is effective.
In addition to reducing the period of uncertainty for patients, this breakthrough has the potential to save society significant costs by allowing patients to reintegrate into the community more quickly.
However, in one-third of cases of major depression, symptoms do not improve even after several rounds of treatment. The urgency to develop a solution that allows rapid determination of the effectiveness of antidepressants is obvious. The researchers are now in the process of refining the algorithm, adding new data sets to improve the accuracy of the predictions.
This post was last modified on feb. 7, 2024, 11:09 AM 11:09
Sign up to receive notifications! Unsubscribe from updates
2024-02-07 09:09:02
#Artificial #Intelligence #Predict #Efficacy #Antidepressants #Major #Depression #iDevice.ro
