The promise of the quantitative electroencephalogram as a predictor of antidepressant treatment outcomes in major depressive disorder

Abstract

Recent studies have shown overall accuracy rates of 72% and 88% using baseline and/or 1-week change in QEEG biomarkers to predict clinical outcome to treatment with various antidepressant medications. In some cases, findings have been replicated across academic institutions and have been studied in the context of randomized, placebo-controlled trials. Recent EEG findings are corroborated by studies that use techniques with greater spatial resolution (eg, PET, MEG) in localizing brain regions pertinent to clinical response. As such, EEG measurements increasingly are validated by other physiologic measurements that have the ability to assess deeper brain structures. Continued progress along these lines may lead to the realized promise of QEEG biomarkers as predictors of antidepressant treatment outcome in routine clinical practice. In the larger context, use of QEEG technology to predict antidepressant response in major depression may mean that more patients will achieve response and remission with less of the trial-and-error approach that currently accompanies antidepressant treatment.