GrayMatters Health, the pioneer of digital brain biomarkers for mental healthcare, highlights the role biomarkers are playing in expanding treatment strategies for patients with complex mental health conditions, including PTSD and Depression.
While mental health is the largest disease burden in medicine, it is the only field where biomarkers are not used regularly for patient diagnosis, treatment, and management. Traditional psychiatric care relies primarily on symptom reporting and clinical observation.
"The future of brain health is here with the introduction of objective biomarkers," commented Linda Carpenter, MD, board-certified psychiatrist, Professor of Psychiatry in the Alpert Medical School of Brown University and Chief of the Brain Research and Interventional Psychiatry (BRaIN) program at Butler Hospital. "It is exciting to see the integration of neuroscience and technology to help deliver evidence-based and compassionate patient care."
The company's proprietary digital biomarkers were developed by applying machine learning models to register fMRI data from deep in the brain to EEG. The amygdala-based and reward system biomarkers, for PTSD and Depression, respectively, together with an interactive simulation help patients learn to regulate brain activity associated with their condition.
"Our biomarkers, both those in clinical use and those in development, are changing the way patients will be treated with medications, psychedelics and psychotherapy, paving the way for objective psychiatry," said Oded Kraft, CEO and co-founder at GrayMatters Health. "This shift toward data-informed care will support monitoring and assessing patient progress and outcomes as part of the treatment pathway."
The need for change from traditional diagnoses and reliance on behavioral symptoms was recently acknowledged by the American Psychiatric Association, the oldest medical association in the country. They are building a long-term strategic plan to integrate biomarkers into the Diagnostic & Statistical Scientific Manual (DSM).
