BrainWaveBank DETECT Phase 2
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Evaluation of the BrainWaveBank platform for detecting risk of psychotic illness
IRAS ID
264137
Contact name
Brian Murphy
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
BrainWaveBank Ltd.
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 0 months, 1 days
Research summary
Early intervention in psychotic disorders, such as schizophrenia, is a critical factor in treatment success and long-term illness outcomes. However, recognising the early signs of psychosis in children and young adults continues to be difficult for primary healthcare professionals and many sufferers go unidentified until their illness becomes severe. The BrainWaveBank (BWB) platform is designed to assist with this problem by enabling the easy collection of brainwave activity recordings (EEG) from non-expert users, outside the clinic.
The BWB platform consists of an easy-to-use EEG headset, along with gamified cognitive tests. The platform can be deployed in home-use, educational, and/or other community-based environments without requiring expert oversight. For at-risk populations, screening tests can be performed at home and data can be reviewed remotely, by a clinician via web-based dashboards. By enabling remote, longitudinal monitoring of the at-risk population, significant resources can be conserved while also enabling earlier detection of those most at-risk for progression to schizophrenia.
In a previous study, we gathered usability feedback from young adults (18-35 years old) in an at-risk mental state (ARMS), healthy young adults of the same age, and consulted with clinicians experienced working with patients with psychotic illness. Following the implementation of changes to the platform based on this feedback, we now aim to test the underlying scientific rationale of our approach in a clinical cohort study. This will involve the recruitment of two groups, representing different stages along the schizophrenia continuum: 1) healthy control participants (n=30); 2) participants in treatment for psychotic illness/schizophrenia (n=30). Participants will be asked to complete 3 recording sessions per week, at home, for 6 weeks. EEG and behavioural scores derived from the platform will be used to test if we can discriminate between group 1 (control) and group 2 (psychosis).
REC name
HSC REC A
REC reference
19/NI/0159
Date of REC Opinion
10 Sep 2019
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion