Researchers receive CAD 45 million to study new psychosis treatments

One out of 100 people will experience a psychotic episode in their lifetime, and these usually appear in late adolescence or early adulthood. A Canada-US team consisting of Sylvain Bouix, from École de technologie supérieure (ÉTS), Martha E. Shenton and Ofer Pasternak, from the Brigham and Women’s Hospital (Harvard University), and René Kahn, from Mount Sinai Hospital (New York) has just received US $33 million in funding-; the equivalent of CAD 45 million-; over five years from the National Institute of Mental Health to better understand the mechanisms of action of new drugs designed to treat psychosis.

With this funding, a research team led by Sylvain Bouix of ÉTS will set up a center to coordinate processing and analysis of data for the proof of principle clinical trial.

“Although promising therapeutic targets have been discovered for this high-risk population, their validation is difficult due to the lack of reliable biomarkers to predict disease progression. Moreover, the diversity of symptoms, such as anxiety or depression, further complicates matters. The development of new data analysis tools could help design clinical trials better adapted to patients’ actual needs.”

More specifically, Professor Bouix and his team will ensure the quality of the data collected, from behavioral and clinical measures to electroencephalography, magnetic resonance imaging and audiovisual recordings, to name but a few.

This is an essential step, as data quality is key to obtaining reliable and accurate results in clinical trials. Data quality also ensures the scientific robustness, personal safety and regulatory acceptance of the new therapies and medical interventions to be developed in the future.