Background Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) is prevalent, often chronic, and requires ongoing monitoring of symptoms to track response to treatment and identify early indicators of relapse. Remote Measurement Technologies (RMT) provide an opportunity to transform the measurement and management of MDD, via data collected from inbuilt smartphone sensors and wearable devices alongside app-based questionnaires and tasks. A key question for the field is the extent to which participants can adhere to research protocols and the completeness of data collected. We aimed to describe drop out and data completeness in a naturalistic multimodal longitudinal RMT study, in people with a history of recurrent MDD. We further aimed to determine whether those experiencing a depressive relapse at baseline contributed less complete data. Methods Remote Assessment of Disease and Relapse – Major Depressive Disorder (RADAR-MDD) is a multi-centre, prospective observational cohort study conducted as part of the Remote Assessment of Disease and Relapse – Central Nervous System (RADAR-CNS) program. People with a history of MDD were provided with a wrist-worn wearable device, and smartphone apps designed to: a) collect data from smartphone sensors; and b) deliver questionnaires, speech tasks, and cognitive assessments. Participants were followed-up for a minimum of 11 months and maximum of 24 months. Results Individuals with a history of MDD (n = 623) were enrolled in the study,. We report 80% completion rates for primary outcome assessments across all follow-up timepoints. 79.8% of people participated for the maximum amount of time available and 20.2% withdrew prematurely. We found no evidence of an association between the severity of depression symptoms at baseline and the availability of data. In total, 110 participants had > 50% data available across all data types. Conclusions RADAR-MDD is the largest multimodal RMT study in the field of mental health. Here, we have shown that collecting RMT data from a clinical population is feasible. We found comparable levels of data availability in active and passive forms of data collection, demonstrating that both are feasible in this patient group.
The fetal brain remains inaccessible to neurophysiological studies. Magnetoencephalography (MEG) is being assessed to fill this gap. We performed 40 fetal MEG (fMEG) recordings with gestational ages (GA) ranging from 30 to 37 weeks. The data from each recording were divided into 15 second epochs which in turn were classified as continuous (CO), discontinuous (DC), or artifact. The fetal behavioral state, quiet or active sleep, was determined using previously defined criteria based on fetal movements and heart rate variability. We studied the correlation between the fetal state, the GA and the percentage of CO and DC epochs. We also analyzed the Spectral Edge Frequency (SEF) and studied its relation with state and GA. We found that the odds of a DC epoch decreased by 6% per week as the GA increased (P=0.0036). This decrease was mainly generated by changes during quiet sleep, which showed 52% DC epochs before 35 weeks GA versus 38% after 35 weeks (P=0.0006). Active sleep did not show a significant change in DC epochs with GA. When both states were compared for MEG patterns within each GA group (before and after 35 weeks), the early group was found to have more DC epochs in quiet sleep (54%) compared to active sleep (42%) (P=0.036). No significant difference in DC epochs between the two states was noted in the late GA group. Analysis of SEF showed a significant difference (P=0.0014) before and after 35 weeks GA, with higher SEF noted at late GA. However, when both quiet and active sleep states were compared within each GA group, the SEF did not show a significant difference. We conclude that fMEG shows reproducible variations in gross features and frequency content, depending on GA and behavioral state. Fetal MEG is a promising tool to investigate fetal brain physiology and maturation.
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