Mobile Observation Of Depression (MOOD)
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Mobile Observation Of Depression (MOOD)
IRAS ID
315890
Contact name
Charles Nduka
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Emteq Ltd
Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier
Duration of Study in the UK
2 years, 0 months, 1 days
Research summary
Depression is debilitating disorder characterised by persistent low mood and, although there is no cure, identifying early warning signs and use of appropriate symptom management can help. However, existing clinical tools for monitoring depression are inadequate - unstructured face-to-face interviews with clinicians are time and resource-intensive and questionnaire-based assessments are subjective, rely on individuals accurately recording their lived experience, and fail to track critical details about illness trajectory. Given these limiting factors there is a need for better ways to monitor depressive symptoms and trajectories in mental health care.
New wearable technologies have the potential to meet current unmet patient needs by providing a symptom management and measurement tool that: (i) does not rely on self-assessment, (ii) can provide immediate feedback about both current illness state and trajectory and (iii) is scalable. In order to provide a better way to monitor depressive symptoms, we have developed OcosenseTM glasses - a wearable device that contains sensors. These sensors measure facial muscle and body movements that research suggests predict depression symptom severity and can provide valuable information for early diagnosis, treatment and to allow better self-management of depression.
The aim of this project is to start the development of the Ocosense glasses for this purpose. To acheive this we will run a pilot clinical investigation to evaluate if we are able to replicate previous studies that have shown an association between facial muscle and body movements and depression symptomatology.
REC name
London - Riverside Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
22/LO/0415
Date of REC Opinion
15 Jun 2022
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion