(Press-News.org) MINNEAPOLIS/ST. PAUL (07/11/2023) — Researchers at the University of Minnesota Medical School recently received a four-year award from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s (DARPA’s) Neural Evidence Aggregation Tool program. The goal of their project— titled Fast, Reliable Electrical Unconscious Detection (FREUD)—is to develop tools to better detect early symptoms of depression, psychosis and suicidality, with the intent that treatment can be started as early in a condition’s trajectory as possible.
“It’s exactly those early moments when getting someone therapy or mental health services could save their life or change the course of their illness,” said Alik Widge, MD, PhD, U of M project lead and assistant professor at the U of M Medical School. “We want to provide tools for early prevention and detection before things get worse.”
Rather than relying on the intuition of therapists to diagnose and treat mental health conditions that can lead to suicide in military veterans and the general population, Dr. Widge and his team will look for physical evidence—known as biomarkers—of symptoms that the patient might not be fully aware of. The team will use different technologies to directly detect electrical signals that occur in the brain and the body when someone encounters something with which they feel uncomfortable.
The project will combine the U of M’s expertise in psychiatry with the expertise of collaborators from the University of Washington in Seattle and Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Massachusetts. They will also work with two industry partners: Deliberate.ai and Intheon.
“One of the best things about this work is the chance to bring together some of the best minds in the country with cutting edge technologies to solve one of the hardest mental health challenges,” said Dr. Widge.
For next steps, the research team aims to build a system that can detect electrical activity in the brain and determine that an image a patient just saw on a screen or was asked about indicates something they’re afraid to discuss. In the long run, researchers hope these biomarkers will identify patients that could be treated to prevent suicide.
###
About the University of Minnesota Medical School
The University of Minnesota Medical School is at the forefront of learning and discovery, transforming medical care and educating the next generation of physicians. Our graduates and faculty produce high-impact biomedical research and advance the practice of medicine. We acknowledge that the U of M Medical School, both the Twin Cities campus and Duluth campus, is located on traditional, ancestral and contemporary lands of the Dakota and the Ojibwe, and scores of other Indigenous people, and we affirm our commitment to tribal communities and their sovereignty as we seek to improve and strengthen our relations with tribal nations. For more information about the U of M Medical School, please visit med.umn.edu.
END
U of M Medical School receives DARPA award to develop detection tools for early symptoms of depression, psychosis and suicidality
2023-07-11
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
Research aims to identify better COPD diagnosis in African American patients
2023-07-11
DENVER — Recently published research suggests that despite showing clear symptoms of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), many African Americans are not officially diagnosed with the disease due to flaws in diagnosis methods. The Research was led by National Jewish Health and recently published in the Journal of General Internal Medicine from the COPDGene study.
Fixed-ratio spirometry, a standard method of measuring respiratory capacity, has long been used as a method of detecting COPD. ...
With a comfort promise, new clinic aims to eliminate pain in kids
2023-07-11
Each year, too many kids in the East Bay suffer needlessly from pain related to long-term serious illness, including migraines, joint and abdominal pain, sickle cell anemia and more. A new UCSF Health pain clinic in Walnut Creek is opening to provide relief.
The new clinic extends the reach of the Stad Center for Pediatric Pain, Palliative & Integrative Medicine beyond UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospitals in San Francisco and Oakland. The Center is one of the nation’s most innovative and comprehensive integrative ...
Potential targets to delay motor aging revealed by C. elegans genome-wide screen
2023-07-11
Genome-wide screen in the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans reveals potential targets to delay motor aging, including the phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase VPS-34; genetic and pharmacological partial inhibition of VPS-34 improves neurotransmission and muscle integrity through increased PI(3)P-PI-PI(4)P conversion, ameliorating motor aging in both worms and mice.
#####
In your coverage, please use this URL to provide access to the freely available paper in PLOS Biology: http://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article?id=10.1371/journal.pbio.3002165
Article ...
Scientists build a healthy dietary pattern using ultra-processed foods
2023-07-11
GRAND FORKS, N.D., July 11, 2023 ̶ Scientists at the USDA Agricultural Research Service’s (ARS) Grand Forks Human Nutrition Research Center led a study that demonstrates it is possible to build a healthy diet with 91 percent of the calories coming from ultra-processed foods (as classified using the NOVA scale) while still following the recommendations from the 2020-2025 Dietary Guidelines for Americans (DGA). The study highlights the versatility of using DGA recommendations in constructing healthy menus.
“The study is a proof-of-concept that shows a more balanced view of healthy ...
Low-glucose sensor in the brain promotes blood glucose balance
2023-07-11
The body’s blood glucose level needs to be maintained in a relatively narrow range. It cannot be too high, as it can lead to diabetes, and it cannot be too low because it can cause fainting or even death.
“There are many glucose-sensing neurons in the brain that are thought to actively participate in detecting small changes of glucose levels in the body and then trigger responses accordingly to return the level to a healthy range,” said Dr. Yong Xu, professor of pediatrics – nutrition, ...
New study is first to find exposure to neurotoxic rodenticide bromethalin in birds of prey
2023-07-11
In 2020, Tufts Wildlife Clinic Director Maureen Murray, V03, published a study that showed 100% of red-tailed hawks tested at the clinic were positive for exposure to anticoagulant rodenticides (ARs). Such exposure occurs when these chemicals are used to kill mice or rats, which eat the poison, and the birds eat the poisoned prey. Now, Murray is expanding that research with a new study published recently in the journal Environmental Pollution, which found that another type of rodenticide—a neurotoxicant called bromethalin—also ...
Changing the way we deliver immune-based cancer drugs could reduce costs by 14%
2023-07-11
ANN ARBOR, Michigan — A new analysis finds that up to millions of dollars could be saved annually on cancer immunotherapy treatments across the Veterans Health Administration by reconsidering how those drugs are delivered.
It’s a concept that could be applied to all cancer centers nationwide. Immune checkpoint inhibitors were initially tested and approved at weight-based dosages but then moved to one-size-fits-all flat doses, in part to reduce drug waste. But researchers from the University of Michigan Rogel Cancer Center found that if vials intended for a single ...
Damage to gut bacteria linked with chemo-induced weight gain in breast cancer patients
2023-07-11
EDMONTON — Researchers have found a link between chemotherapy-induced changes to gut bacteria and the unhealthy weight gain seen in breast cancer patients, pointing the way to potentially help survivors avoid obesity-related illness later in their lives.
In newly published research, a team at the University of Alberta found that the patients treated with chemotherapy lost muscle mass and gained abdominal fat, which has been linked to heart disease, diabetes and even cancer recurrence. The chemo patients also exhibited signs of inflammation and significant changes to the number and variety of bacteria in their guts.
“Changes in the bacterial populations ...
Nurse researcher casts new light on bruise detection in patients with darker skin tones
2023-07-11
July 11, 2023 – A leading forensic nurse researcher has developed new approaches to detecting bruises in patients with darker skin tones – thus helping to overcome barriers to diagnosing injuries in patients of color, according to a special article on nurse innovators in the July issue of the American Journal of Nursing (AJN). The journal is published in the Lippincott portfolio by Wolters Kluwer.
The article highlights the work of Katherine Scafide, PhD, RN, of George Mason University, Fairfax, Va., whose "nonconventional program ...
Warmer weather makes venomous snake bites more likely, especially in spring
2023-07-11
American Geophysical Union
Press Release No. 23-27
For Immediate Release
11 July 2023
This press release is available online at: https://news.agu.org/press-release/warmer-weather-makes-venomous-snake-bites-more-likely-especially-in-spring
AGU press contact:
Rebecca Dzombak, news@agu.org, +1 (202) 777-7492 (UTC-4 hours)
Emory University press contact:
Rob Spahr, rob.spahr@emory.edu (UTC-4 hours)
Interview requests should be sent to Rob.
WASHINGTON — Climate change is not only making Georgia hotter but also increasing the likelihood of snake bite, according to a new study. Every degree Celsius of daily temperature increase corresponds with about ...