The findings, which were published this week in the American Journal of Psychiatry<\/a><\/em>,<\/span> offer hope for better treatment of depression. By app<\/a>lying machine learning to medical data, the researchers accurately predicted early responses to the drug \u2014 the most commonly prescribed antidepressant in the US.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWith this method, we can already prevent 2\/3 of the number of \u2018erroneous\u2019 prescriptions of sertraline and thus offer better quality of care for the patient. Because the drug also has side effects,\u201d said study co-author Liesbeth Reneman, a professor of neuroradiology at Amsterdam UMC.<\/p>\n To forecast the responses, the researchers studied\u00a0brain scans and clinical data from 229 patients with major depression. The data had been collected before and after treatment with sertraline or a placebo.<\/p>\n TNW Conference 2024 – 2 for 1 Flash Sale<\/p>\n Get two tickets for the price of one. Offer Ends on Monday 12 February<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n By inputting this information into\u00a0an algorithm, the researchers could predict <\/span>within a week whether the medication would work.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is important news<\/a> for patients,\u201d Reneman said. \u201cNormally, it takes six to eight weeks before it is known whether an antidepressant will work.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n The study also highlighted a biological determinant of sertraline efficacy.<\/p>\n \u201cThe algorithm suggested that those who had a lot of blood flow in the anterior cingulate cortex, the area of brain involved in emotion regulation, would be helped by the drug,\u201d said study co-author Eric Ruh\u00e9, a psychiatrist at Radboudumc University Medical Centre.<\/p>\n These findings could lead to better treatment of depression. At present, patients often take sertraline for up to six months before determining whether it works. If it doesn\u2019t, they may go through the same process again with other antidepressants.<\/p>\n The new method could provide a faster route to the right medication.<\/p>\n One of the themes of this year\u2019s TNW Conference is Ren-AI-ssance: The AI-Powered Rebirth. If you want to go deeper into all things artificial intelligence, or simply experience the event (and say hi to our editorial team), we\u2019ve got something special for our loyal readers. Use the code TNWXMEDIA<\/a> at checkout to get 30% off your <\/span><\/i>business pass<\/span><\/i>, <\/span><\/i>investor pass<\/span><\/i> or startup packages (<\/span><\/i>Bootstrap<\/span><\/i> & <\/span><\/i>Scaleup<\/span><\/i>).<\/span><\/i>\n <\/div>\n If you liked the article, do not forget to share it with your friends. Follow us on\u00a0Google News<\/a><\/span>\u00a0too, click on the star and choose us from your favorites.<\/span><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n If you want to read more like this article, you can visit our Technology category.<\/a><\/span><\/strong>\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n
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