Motion-tracking wristband may help tackle depression

A wristband that tracks rest, activity schedule throughout a 24-hour cycle can determine which patients with depression will respond best to commonly prescribed drugs such as Prozac, a new study suggests.
Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, or SSRIs, are today's mainstay for depression treatment, said Dr W Vaughn McCall, Chairman of the Department of Psychiatry and Health Behavior at the Medical College of Georgia at Georgia Regents University.
However, patients and their physicians may go through many months, doses, and different SSRIs as well as other antidepressants trying to get results, McCall said.
McCall suggests that a smart wristband may help by identifying those commonly referred to as "night owls," who appear to be the best responders to SSRIs.

McCall noted that his study sample was small - 58 patients - and the findings are very preliminary.
"What our findings suggest is that night owls, the group most likely to be depressed, also look like the patients who are most likely to respond," McCall said.

It makes sense that owls are good responders since SSRIs tend to shift rest time to a more usual, middle-of-the-night timeframe, said McCall.
Larks, on the other hand, might better respond to a different class of drugs, such as bupropion, or Wellbutrin, which unlike SSRIs, target the neurotransmitter dopamine, providing a slight stimulation that may help larks readjust their lowest activity times - which should correspond with deep sleep times - to slightly later in the day, McCall said.

While there is no good data on what percentage of the population is night owls versus larks, the 58 patients in the study were about half-and-half.
Those who had the latest period of rest, close to 5 am, were the best responders to SSRIs, McCall said.