Depression is a major contributor to global disability. Although established psychotherapeutic and pharmacological treatments are available, about one third of patients are treatment resistant, with important consequences on quality of life and social costs. In the framework of ArtiPro project (ERAPerMed Joint Transnational Call 2022), we will test the hypothesis that clinically relevant outcomes of affective disorders can be predicted by differences in individual-level markers (clinical, socio-demographic, drug-drug-gene interactions, omics and brain imaging). Clinically relevant outcomes include measures of functioning, wellbeing and quality of life, estimators of treatment efficacy such as response and resistance, poor disease course and associated variables (e.g. residual or persistent symptoms). Symptoms of affective disorders vary within a continuum having health and disease at the extremes, therefore considering their variation and prediction in a population not limited to cases with the disease may increase statistical power. Specific aims will include: to test and optimise the prediction of outcomes using different sets of individual-level variables; to test if considering the continuum in the variation of affective symptoms in the population can identify factors that improve outcome prediction in patients; to replicate prediction models. The project will include the following data: primary care data, hospital data, online questionnaire data, biomarkers, medication data, genetics and brain imaging. The whole UK Biobank cohort will be used.
