Cohens Veterans Bioscience, Stanford partner to study PTSD biomarkers

Cohens Veterans Bioscience recently announced a partnership with Stanford University to study clinical biomarkers for PTSD to inform individualized treatment.

“Our goal is to create a brain signature specific to an individual and then tailor treatment accordingly. Ultimately, we hope to have a clinic-ready tool that will dramatically change how we care for patients with post-traumatic stress,” study researcher Amit Etkin, MD, PhD, of Stanford University and Veterans Affairs, Palo Alto, said in a press release. “All we currently have is a one-size fits all approach to treatment. While this approach is not effective, we do not yet have reliable predictors for who will respond to treatment. Some patients will do very well with [prolonged exposure therapy] but for those who do not, we need to be able to know definitively and early on so that we can offer alternative options.”

The collaboration will expand on previous findings from Etkin that showed efficacy of a biomarker, detected by functional MRI, to predict treatment response.

A grant from Cohens Veterans Bioscience will enable Etkin and colleagues to conduct a study among 160 veterans currently receiving psychotherapy with prolonged exposure therapy or cognitive processing therapy. Study participants will be assessed before treatment to measure a cognitive biomarker that predicts response to prolonged exposure therapy or cognitive processing therapy. Six-month follow-up will determine the marker’s predictive value.

The study will also assess efficacy of electroencephalography to detect predictive biomarkers, as functional MRI can be difficult to standardize for clinical use, according to the release.

“Post-traumatic stress presents in patients in a myriad of ways, which underscores the need for individualizing treatment,” Magali Haas, MD, PhD, CEO and president of Cohen Veterans Bioscience, said in the release. “Our collaboration with the talented team at Stanford and the VA will lead us one step closer to understanding the mechanisms underlying PTSD in specific individuals, which is critical if we are to develop diagnostic tests that can provide accurate diagnoses, new treatments, and tools to measure the effectiveness of a given treatment.”