title: Pharmaco-EEG: A Study of Individualized Medicine in Clinical Practice.
abstract: Pharmaco-electroencephalography (Pharmaco-EEG) studies using clinical EEG and quantitative EEG (qEEG) technologies have existed for more than 4 decades. This is a promising area that could improve psychotropic intervention using neurological data. One of the objectives in our clinical practice has been to collect EEG and quantitative EEG (qEEG) data. In the past 5 years, we have identified a subset of refractory cases (n = 386) found to contain commonalities of a small number of electrophysiological features in the following diagnostic categories: mood, anxiety, autistic spectrum, and attention deficit disorders, Four abnormalities were noted in the majority of medication failure cases and these abnormalities did not appear to significantly align with their diagnoses. Those were the following: encephalopathy, focal slowing, beta spindles, and transient discharges. To analyze the relationship noted, they were tested for association with the assigned diagnoses. Fisher's exact test and binary logistics regression found very little (6%) association between particular EEG/qEEG abnormalities and diagnoses. Findings from studies of this type suggest that EEG/qEEG provides individualized understanding of pharmacotherapy failures and has the potential to improve medication selection.
authors.affiliation: The Tarnow Center for Self-Management, Houston, TX, USA drron@tarnowcenter.com.
authors.forename: Ronald J
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Swatzyna
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Psychology, Saybrook University, San Francisco, CA, USA.
authors.forename: Gerald P
authors.initials: GP
authors.lastname: Kozlowski
authors.affiliation: The Tarnow Center for Self-Management, Houston, TX, USA.
authors.forename: Jay D
authors.initials: JD
authors.lastname: Tarnow
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D016903:Drug Monitoring / Q000379:methods*; D004569:Electroencephalography / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000379:methods; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000188:drug therapy*; D008875:Middle Aged; D057285:Precision Medicine / Q000379:methods*; D011379:Prognosis; D011619:Psychotropic Drugs / Q000008:administration & dosage*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D011619:Psychotropic Drugs
keywords: EEG; beta spindles; diagnoses; encephalopathy; focal slowing; neurobiomarkers; pharmaco-EEG; qEEG; refractory cases; transient discharges