Embracing their own vulnerability and telling personal stories, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus psychiatry faculty shared how they are innovating across disciplines and using digital technologies, novel drugs and deep brain stimulation to transform the mental health treatment landscape.
They presented the new discoveries in mental health to an audience of over 100 on Nov. 1 at the Transforming Healthcare community lecture at CU Anschutz.
Before COVID-19 emerged, the nation was already dealing with a growing mental health crisis. The problem was only compounded by the pandemic, which brought into stark focus the lack of providers and adequate treatments. In his opening remarks, CU Anschutz Chancellor Don Elliman reminded the audience about the decision made four years ago to transform the campus’s role in mental health in the state of Colorado.
“Prior to that, we had been largely focused on research and education,“ he said. “We've increased the number of lives we've touched every year by 400%.”
Digital technology’s role in treatment
Neill Epperson, MD, chair of the Department of Psychiatry at the CU School of Medicine, said, while once hesitant, she is now a convert to the use of digital technology for the treatment of psychiatric disorders. Her primary concerns centered on the lack of evidence of efficacy or safety and losing the critical patient-provider relationship.
But, knowing that 60% of counties nationwide lack a psychiatrist, and 30% lack a psychologist, Epperson knew that it was time to think “outside the box” and embrace remote patient monitoring, she said.
Epperson and partners at UCHealth began working with a digital health company created by mental health providers. Using HealthRhythms technology, the department has employed passive, remote monitoring for 100 patients with plans to expand to 2,000 this year. By tracking behavioral “vital signs'' of well-being such as sleep, physical activity and socialization, the product proved to predict a person’s mental health crisis with 90% accuracy – seven days before a patient recognized they were in trouble.
During CU’s trial, providers received 19 urgent alerts.
“It allowed us to reach out to patients in real-time and say, ‘Hey, how are you doing? Is everything OK?’” Epperson said.
Seeing the technology in action helped alleviate her concerns about relationships.
“Patients loved it because they felt more connected to their provider,” Epperson said.
Individualized treatment for mental health
Assistant Professor Andrew Novick, MD, PhD, said his “bubble was burst” just before starting his residency, when a renowned neuroscientist commented that “hypothesis-driven research has yet to make a truly meaningful clinical impact in psychiatry.”
The first therapeutic drugs used to treat depression were found via serendipity during trials for treating tuberculosis and cancer in the 1950s. Though there are currently fewer than 30 drugs approved for major depressive disorder, each has been derived from these two original drug classes.
The current options work for six out of 10 people.
Original source can be found here.
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