Symposium
Session Room: M1
Session Room: M1
Sunday, June 28, 05:40 PM – 06:55 PM
Symposium 19:
Precision Neuromodulation to Improve Treatment Outcomes in Mood Disorders and OCD
Precision Neuromodulation to Improve Treatment Outcomes in Mood Disorders and OCD
Mood disorders and OCD cause substantial, persistent disability, yet clinical responses to medications and neuromodulation vary widely and remain difficult to predict. Precision strategies that align brain-based phenotypes with individualized stimulation parameters are urgently needed to improve efficacy, reduce side effects, and achieve durable recovery. This symposium presents convergent strategies for precision neuromodulation across noninvasive, seizure-based, and invasive modalities.
Dr. Katherine Dunlop will present work on biological heterogeneity in mood disorders using normative modelling and multivariate statistics to understand the relationship between brain-based measures and symptom variation. She will compare dimensional and categorical solution spaces and demonstrate how each predicts clinical outcomes with repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) as well as with SSRI treatment. Longitudinal analyses will address the stability of subtype assignments and their utility for rTMS response prediction (Dunlop et al., 2024).
Dr. Zhi-De Deng will address the efficacy–side-effects trade-off in electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) and present advances in magnetic seizure therapy (MST) that enable more focal targeting and potentially improved cognitive tolerability (Deng et al., 2024). Building on this progress, Dr. Deng and his team at the National Institute of Mental Health have developed next-generation seizure therapy devices, including the PRecision Optimally Targeted ECT (PROTECT) system, which introduces novel waveforms and pulse patterning, and the Multichannel Individualized Stimulation Therapy (MIST) device, which enables personalized multifocal stimulation through computational electric field modeling and optimization. Together, he will present how these innovations highlight how seizure therapy is evolving toward safer, more personalized, and more effective treatment strategies.
Dr. Christoph Kraus will focus on how invasive neuromodulation techniques are suited for improving the lives of patients with severe forms psychiatric diseases. Recent results from the largest sham-controlled trial of antidepressant vagus nerve stimulation (VNS, N=493) have indicated that quality of life improved, especially in patients with severe and chronic depression (Rush et al., 2025). Dr. Kraus will present how to setup a VNS clinic, identify patient groups with the highest chances of response to VNS based on clinical history as well as blood- and EEG-based markers (Kraus et al., 2022). In addition, Dr. Kraus will present data on optimizing the selection of psychiatric patients for deep-brain stimulation (DBS), in which diseases the highest effect sizes are expectable, and how placebo response are influencing outcomes. Currently in psychiatry, DBS has FDA approval for patients with severe and intractable OCD. Dr. Kraus will present on how to start up a DBS center and initial results from a clinical single-center trial in patients with OCD.
Dr. Katherine Dunlop will present work on biological heterogeneity in mood disorders using normative modelling and multivariate statistics to understand the relationship between brain-based measures and symptom variation. She will compare dimensional and categorical solution spaces and demonstrate how each predicts clinical outcomes with repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) as well as with SSRI treatment. Longitudinal analyses will address the stability of subtype assignments and their utility for rTMS response prediction (Dunlop et al., 2024).
Dr. Zhi-De Deng will address the efficacy–side-effects trade-off in electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) and present advances in magnetic seizure therapy (MST) that enable more focal targeting and potentially improved cognitive tolerability (Deng et al., 2024). Building on this progress, Dr. Deng and his team at the National Institute of Mental Health have developed next-generation seizure therapy devices, including the PRecision Optimally Targeted ECT (PROTECT) system, which introduces novel waveforms and pulse patterning, and the Multichannel Individualized Stimulation Therapy (MIST) device, which enables personalized multifocal stimulation through computational electric field modeling and optimization. Together, he will present how these innovations highlight how seizure therapy is evolving toward safer, more personalized, and more effective treatment strategies.
Dr. Christoph Kraus will focus on how invasive neuromodulation techniques are suited for improving the lives of patients with severe forms psychiatric diseases. Recent results from the largest sham-controlled trial of antidepressant vagus nerve stimulation (VNS, N=493) have indicated that quality of life improved, especially in patients with severe and chronic depression (Rush et al., 2025). Dr. Kraus will present how to setup a VNS clinic, identify patient groups with the highest chances of response to VNS based on clinical history as well as blood- and EEG-based markers (Kraus et al., 2022). In addition, Dr. Kraus will present data on optimizing the selection of psychiatric patients for deep-brain stimulation (DBS), in which diseases the highest effect sizes are expectable, and how placebo response are influencing outcomes. Currently in psychiatry, DBS has FDA approval for patients with severe and intractable OCD. Dr. Kraus will present on how to start up a DBS center and initial results from a clinical single-center trial in patients with OCD.