Successes and Challenges in Precision Medicine in Psychiatry

Systems consolidation and fear memory generalisation as a potential target for trauma-related disorders

Fear memory generalisation is a central hallmark in the broad range of anxiety and trauma-related disorders. Recent findings suggest that fear generalisation is closely related to hippocampal dependency during retrieval. In this review, we describe the current understanding about memory generalisation and its potential influence in fear attenuation through pharmacological and behavioural interventions. In light of systems consolidation framework, we propose that keeping memory precision could be a key step to enhance therapeutic outcomes.

Testing Psychosis Phenotypes From Bipolar-Schizophrenia Network for Intermediate Phenotypes for Clinical Application: Biotype Characteristics and Targets

BACKGROUND

Psychiatry aspires to the molecular understanding of its disorders and, with that knowledge, to precision medicine. Research supporting such goals in the dimension of psychosis has been compromised, in part, by using phenomenology alone to estimate disease entities. To this end, we are proponents of a deep phenotyping approach in psychosis, using computational strategies to discover the most informative phenotypic fingerprint as a promising strategy to uncover mechanisms in psychosis.

METHODS

Doing this, the Bipolar-Schizophrenia Network for Intermediate Phenotypes (B-SNIP) has used biomarkers to identify distinct subtypes of psychosis with replicable biomarker characteristics. While we have presented these entities as relevant, their potential utility in clinical practice has not yet been demonstrated.

RESULTS

Here we carried out an analysis of clinical features that characterize biotypes. We found that biotypes have unique and defining clinical characteristics that could be used as initial screens in the clinical and research settings. Differences in these clinical features appear to be consistent with biotype biomarker profiles, indicating a link between biological features and clinical presentation. Clinical features associated with biotypes differ from those associated with DSM diagnoses, indicating that biotypes and DSM syndromes are not redundant and are likely to yield different treatment predictions. We highlight 3 predictions based on biotype that are derived from individual biomarker features and cannot be obtained from DSM psychosis syndromes.

CONCLUSIONS

In the future, biotypes may prove to be useful for targeting distinct molecular, circuit, cognitive, and psychosocial therapies for improved functional outcomes.

A Preliminary Precision Treatment Rule for Remission of Suicide Ideation

OBJECTIVE

There is growing interest in the development of composite precision treatment rules (PTRs) to guide the selection of the treatments most likely to be helpful for individual patients. We present here the results of an effort to develop a preliminary PTR for Collaborative Assessment and Management of Suicidality (CAMS) relative to enhanced-care as usual based on secondary analysis of the Operation Worth Living (OWL) randomized controlled trial. The outcome of interest is eliminating suicide ideation (SI) within 3 months of initiating treatment.

METHOD

A state-of-the-art ensemble machine learning method was used to develop the PTR among the n = 148 U.S. Soldiers (predominately male and White, age range 18-48) OWL patients.

RESULTS

We estimated that CAMS was the better treatment for 77.8% of patients and that treatment assignment according to the PTR would result in a 13.6% (95% CI: 0.9%-26.3%) increase in 3-month SI remission compared to random treatment assignment.

CONCLUSIONS

Although promising, results are limited by the small sample size, restrictive baseline assessment, and inability to evaluate effects on suicidal behaviors or disaggregate based on history of suicidal behaviors. Replication is needed in larger samples with comprehensive baseline assessments, longer-term follow-ups, and more extensive outcomes.