Enabling Neuroscience research Approaches for Brain, feeLings and Emotions (ENABLE): An Innovative Platform for Clinical Trials in Mood Disorders

Summary

Mental health conditions, such as depressive and bipolar disorders, are very complex. They are also very disabling illnesses. Often, additional health issues complicate the symptoms and experiences that patients feel. To date, research has aimed to identify biological markers that help us understand these illnesses better. But, such clinical research trials often include only patients with a very clear-cut diagnosis. That means that people with additional health or psychiatric concerns are excluded. However, this is not true for real-world patients with mood disorders who often have additional health concerns.

One solution is to create large-scale platform trials. They combine efforts of many institutions (universities). This creates a shared database that helps recruit a range of patients into clinical trials.

For ENABLE, we aim to recruit participants across the entire range of mood disorders. This includes depression with comorbid psychiatric and general medical conditions. Examples include anxiety, substance use, psychosis, post-traumatic stress disorder, chronic pain, and cardiovascular or inflammatory conditions.

The main objectives of ENABLE are threefold. First, to create a standardized method for collecting data. This data will characterize individuals with mood disorders. Second, get consent and standardize screening methods and get neurobiological data, including neuroimaging and EEG data. This will help recruit participants for future studies. Third, provide open access to standardized clinical and neurobiological data for the neuroscience community.