South Middlesex Times

A new method for analyzing brain scans could significantly advance psychiatric research by requiring smaller patient groups, according to a study published in Science Advances. This development may speed up the creation of more precise mental health treatments.

Previously, researchers believed that thousands of brain scans were necessary to make reliable connections between brain function and psychiatric symptoms. However, the recent study shows that accurate predictions about cognitive functioning in psychiatric patients can be made using hundreds of subjects without compromising scientific rigor.

"This is very much in the research stage," said Avram Holmes, associate professor of psychiatry at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School and senior author of the study. "But eventually, these approaches could help identify underlying mechanisms that might be causing patients’ symptoms and help treat the cause as directly as possible."

The researchers employed a technique called "meta-matching," which uses data from large population studies to enhance smaller clinical studies' accuracy. Holmes explained it as a method similar to how tech companies utilize large datasets for better individual user predictions: "It's like a bridge that jumps from those big population samples to the smaller scale clinical collections."

The team demonstrated their ability to predict cognitive functioning—a major concern across various psychiatric conditions—in three different patient groups with diagnoses such as depression, anxiety, and schizophrenia. These predictions remained accurate across different patient groups, scanning sites, and cognitive tests.

Cognitive issues are a significant problem for psychiatric patients and often persist even when other symptoms improve. Holmes noted this concern: "It's a chief complaint amongst many patients. They become ill, and then their ability to think through complex problems and their executive functioning suffer as their symptoms increase."

The study identified specific brain networks related to cognitive function and found decreased connectivity between these regions and areas responsible for basic sensory information. This pattern was consistent across different psychiatric conditions, suggesting shared biological mechanisms may underlie cognitive problems in various mental illnesses.

While current research focuses on cognitive function, Holmes indicated potential expansion into studying other symptoms. This approach might assist doctors in better matching treatments to individual patients by predicting not just current symptoms but also future illness courses.

"Individuals could present the same clinically at the moment but have completely different illness courses going forward," Holmes said.

Routine brain scans for psychiatric patients remain distant due to technological development needs and cost considerations. Holmes questioned resource allocation: "The question in my mind is whether there are other things to spend those funds on that would be more beneficial to the patients in the near term."

Researchers aim to broaden their approach by examining additional aspects of psychiatric illness while exploring biological links between brain function and symptoms with hopes of developing more personalized treatment strategies.