IIT Kanpur Study Finds Brain And Gut Signals Can Predict Antidepressant Response Within 7–10 Days

A combination of brain and gastric electrical signals along with clinical symptoms can help predict antidepressant treatment outcomes within 7–10 days of starting treatment.

A joint study by researchers at the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur and Ganesh Shankar Vidyarthi Memorial (GSVM) Medical College was published on Monday.

According to an IIT Kanpur statement, the findings could enable earlier assessment of treatment response compared with the conventional 4–6-week period typically needed to evaluate whether an antidepressant is working.

The ability to identify likely treatment responses quickly could help address a major challenge in depression care.

Depression affects an estimated 5 per cent of adults worldwide and around 4.5 per cent of India’s population.

More than half of patients may not respond adequately to their first antidepressant. They often require weeks of trial and error before doctors identify an effective treatment.

The study examined electrical activity in the brain and stomach using electroencephalography (EEG) and electrogastrography (EGG), respectively, along with clinical symptom data. It included 206 participants, including 144 treatment-naive patients with depression.

Researchers recorded EEG and EGG signals at the start of treatment and again approximately one week later. They then examined whether these early biological signals, combined with clinical information, could predict treatment outcomes assessed 4–6 weeks after antidepressant therapy began.

The predictive model identified patients unlikely to respond to treatment with 84 per cent sensitivity and 78 per cent specificity during model evaluation, according to the statement.

When tested on an independent patient cohort, the model achieved 77.3 per cent overall accuracy, with 80 per cent specificity and 71.4 per cent sensitivity in identifying nonresponders.

Researchers said the findings indicated that objective, non-invasive brain and gut electrophysiological signals collected during about the first week of treatment contain information about treatment response.

Personalised Treatment

Researchers found that different symptom profiles showed distinct patterns of brain and gut physiology linked to treatment outcomes.

Researchers said recognising these biological subtypes could help explain differences in patients’ responses to the same medication and facilitate personalised treatment strategies.

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