A fascinating study just published in Nature Mental Health aimed at helping predict the outcomes of psychotherapy for patients with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) using Machine Learning (ML) and electroencephalography (EEG) data.
PTSD is a mental health condition triggered by experiencing or witnessing a traumatic event; two evidence-based treatments–Prolonged Exposure (PE) and Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT)–are commonly used to help patients, with varied results.
In this study, the researchers used a supervised machine learning approach and high-density resting-state EEG (rsEEG) recordings to predict individual psychotherapy outcomes. They identified a pretreatment EEG connectivity signature in the eyes-open theta frequency range that was predictive of patients’ responses to both PE and CPT. [Read more…] about Study shows the power of electroencephalography and machine learning to help predict response to psychotherapy (or lack thereof) in patients with PTSD