(PRISM) Psychiatric Ratings using Intermediate Stratified Markers

Project summary

The current nosology of neuropsychiatric disorders allows for a pragmatic approach to treatment choice, regulation and clinical research that is not based on the biological causes for these disorders. Unfortunately, neuropsychiatric drug development has stalled in the past decades at least in part through the weakness of the link between clinical classification and biological causation. In a coordinated effort bringing togetheracademic experts, SMEs, patient and family organizations, regulators, ECNP and EFPIA partners, this project aims to develop a quantitative biological approach to the understanding of neuropsychiatric diseases that aims to revitalise the discovery and development of more effective treatments for patients. The project will focus on schizophrenia (SZ), Alzheimer’s disease (AD), and major depression (MD), disorders that share in part common symptomatologies, including social withdrawal and certain cognitive deficits, such as attention, working memory and sensory processing. Innovative technologies (e.g. EEG, cognitive tasks, (f)MRI, smartphone monitoring, genetics and epigenetics) will be used to deep phenotype a clinical cohort of SZ and AD patients. These data will then be combined with existing clinical data sets from major European and global disease cohorts that also include MD. The aim will be to derive a set of quantifiable biological parameters from these data that allow to cluster and differentiate SZ, AD and MD patients who  are, or are not, socially withdrawn

The PRISM project aims to develop a quantitative biological approach to the understanding and treatment of neuropsychiatric diseases.