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Artificial Intelligence Helps Providers Choose Depression Therapies

An artificial intelligence algorithm can accurately predict whether an antidepressant will work based on brain activity.

Artificial intelligence helps providers choose depression therapies

Source: Thinkstock

By Jessica Kent

- Artificial intelligence tools may be able to help providers objectively diagnose and prescribe depression treatments based on analyses of brain activity, according to a study published in Nature Biotechnology.

The findings are part of a national trial initiated by UT Southwestern in 2011, which seeks to better understand mood disorders. Several studies from the trial demonstrate how advanced technologies, including AI, brain imaging, and blood tests, could help doctors choose appropriate depression therapies.

"These studies have been a bigger success than anyone on our team could have imagined," said Madhukar Trivedi, MD, a UT Southwestern psychiatrist who oversaw the multi-site trial involving Stanford, Harvard and other institutions. "We provided abundant data to show we can move past the guessing game of choosing depression treatments and alter the mindset of how the disease should be diagnosed and treated."