Purpose

Last year, Facebook announced that its artificial intelligence algorithms can now predict suicide, based purely on your social media footprint (1,2). Unfortunately, only half of patients with a mental disorder will ever seek mental healthcare, half will dropout of care, and less than half will respond to the treatments they are prescribed (3). Facing a 30% growth in suicide in the US (4), we need a better way to target treatments and maintain adherence to treatments that work. Physicians are now turning to some of the same artificial intelligence tools that classify population subgroups for advertising, shopping, or dating — to match patients to individualized pharmacotherapy, with promising clinical evidence.(5)  

Led by two accomplished physicians and military leaders, this program will summarize the latest developments in the use of electrophysiology and machine learning to diagnose psychiatric disorders, to predict treatment outcomes, and even to reduce suicidal thinking.  Drs Schneider and Xenakis will review the evolution of clinical biomarkers in Psychiatry, the latest research on depression treatment failure and its relationship to Suicidality, and the response of physicians to “crowdsource” biomarkers for more effective, targeted treatments. They will discuss case and institutional examples of the latest applications for targeting treatment in Psychiatry, as well as research on the measurement and prevention of suicidal ideation in clinical practice.

Learning Objectives

• Review evolution of clinical biomarkers in psychiatry — for both clinical diagnosis and treatment selection 
• Discuss current research on suicidality and its relationship to trial and order treatment modalities
• Evaluate current sources of objective data to guide treatment
• Review current evidence for and research for biomarker-guided treatment in Psychiatry
• Review case studies and institutional examples

Faculty

Colonel Brett Schneider, MD recently retired from the US Army and is now Associate Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at Uniformed Services University.  An Iowa native, Dr. Schneider was deployed twice in Iraq, was the inaugural Chief of the Department of Psychiatry at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, and was the DOD Champion for the VA/DOD Clinical Practice Guideline for the Assessment and Management of Patients at Risk for Suicide. 

Stephen Xenakis, MD is a retired brigadier general and Army medical corps officer with 28 years of active service. Dr. Xenakis is board certified by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology in General Psychiatry, is an adjunct clinical professor at the Uniformed Services University of Health Sciences, and Founder of the Center for Translational Medicine. He has been a senior adviser to the Department of Defense on neurobehavioral conditions and medical management, and an anti-torture advisor to Physicians for Human Rights.  

Disclosures

The following speakers and planning committee members have no conflicts with commercial interest companies to disclose.

• Sue Huppert, Planning Committee
• Lisa Streyffeler, PhD, Planning Committee

The following speakers and planning committee members have a conflict(s) with commercial interest companies to disclose.

• George Carpenter - Planning Committee, Employee of Mynd Analytics
• Colonel Brett Schneider, MD (Retired) - Speaker, Honoraria from Mynd Analytics
• Brigadier General Stephen Xenakis, MD (Retired) - Speaker, Consultant and self-managed stock holder for Mynd Analytics

References

1. Wired, Artificial Intelligence is Learning to Predict and Prevent Suicide, 3/17/17
2. Facebook, Under the hood: Suicide prevention tools powered by AI, posted 2/21/18
3. Tylee and Jones, Managing depression in primary care, BMJ. 2005 Apr 9; 330(7495): 800–801, doi: 10.1136/bmj.330.7495.800
4. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 9-21-18
5. Carpenter et. al., A Promising New Strategy to Improve Treatment Outcomes for Patients with Depression, Population Health Management, 2018  DOI: 10.1089/pop.2018.0101