Blinklab teams up with Monash Uni to monitor effects of ketamine

BB1 has announced a new study to run in partnership with Monash University to evaluate its tool to monitor the therapeutic effects of ketamine on cognitive processes.

The company is developing smartphone-based AI powered diagnostic tests for neurological disorders. Pic: via Getty Images.

• BB1 and Monash University team up to test how ketamine impacts cognition

• Study will evaluate BB1’s tool to measure pharmacological effects of novel therapeutic agents

• The study will now recruit up to 35 healthy adults between 18-55 years old

 

Special Report: Blinklab has announced a new study to run in partnership with Monash University to evaluate the company’s medical device able to monitor the therapeutic effects of ketamine on cognitive processes.

The company is developing smartphone-based, AI-powered diagnostic tests for neurological disorders.

This study provides a unique opportunity to discover the building blocks of cognition with the potential to transform our understanding of a range of clinical conditions.

In the future, the results could help facilitate cognitive behavioural therapy outcomes in patients with psychiatric conditions such as depression, schizophrenia, epilepsy, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

The focus of the study, ketamine is known as a dissociative anaesthetic and is commonly used for pain management, as a sedative and also for treating depression.

Prescriptions for ketamine have been steadily on the rise over the past handful of years. In fact, they are 5x since 2017, with the depression-treatment factor increasing over time.

A tool to measure pharmacological effects

The Pharmacology of Human Decision Making Study, conducted by the School of Psychological Sciences at Monash University, will investigate the impact of glutamate challenge on perceptual decision making (including behavioural performance, sensorimotor gating) by administering ketamine while participants perform a prepulse inhibition test using Blinklab (ASX:BB1) application.

The study will be able to demonstrate whether administration of ketamine can disrupt basic sensory encoding mechanisms, which will be detectable in reduced prepulse inhibition.

The company says it has the potential to demonstrate that drugs targeting glutamatergic neurotransmission can treat some aspects of psychiatric disease symptomology or improve the efficacy of cognitive behavioural therapy.

It will also evaluate the ability of tests such as BB1’s to be used as a tool to measure pharmacological effects of existing and novel therapeutic agents.

The study will now recruit up to 35 healthy adults between 18-55 years old and each participant will complete three testing sessions after ketamine administration.

Their participation is expected to take four to five weeks per subject.

This article was developed in collaboration with Blinklab, a Stockhead advertiser at the time of publishing.

This article does not constitute financial product advice. You should consider obtaining independent advice before making any financial decisions.