To Dose or Not to Dose? Exploring digital biomarkers for objective assessment of mood and sleep for wellbeing

Abstract

Wellbeing has emerged as a critical area of focus in contemporary research, driven by a growing interest in enhancing overall quality of life. A key component of wellbeing is mood – “a conscious state of mind or predominant emotion” as defined in the Merriam-Webster dictionary. However, mood has many connotations in different contexts, especially in psychology and medicine, which is our focus. Globally, mood disorders are the leading cause of health loss, which has been further exacerbated due to the recent pandemic. Hence, there is a need to enhance the understanding of human mood, especially using digital biomarkers, which are ubiquitously available through wearables. While links between mood and biomarkers such as speech, heart rate, and heart rate variability has been published, conclusive relationships using any systematic study are lacking. Hence, we have embarked on a systematic exploration of the use of digital biomarkers for mood research. Understanding the different biomarkers that impact mood may lend itself to better methods for examining approaches for mood enhancement. Hence, firstly we will present the findings from a recent Health Research Council (HRC) study called MoodAI, which uses digital biomarkers for objective mood assessment, unlike the traditional subjective measures, used in primary care, such as PHQ-9. Due to the significant increase in mood disorders and the lack of any suitable therapy for certain conditions, such as treatment-resistant depression, there has been considerable interest in the use of psychedelics, such as Psilocybin and Lysergic Acid Diethylamide (LSD). While full hallucinogenic dosing of these have been shown to provide significant remission, these therapies are not scalable, as they have to be managed very closely by a team of doctors. Hence, there has been considerable recent interest in microdosing, which is a significantly reduced amount of the medication, that is devoid of the typical hallucinogenic effects. Interestingly, such medications can be dispensed safely for take home usage. However, their efficacy for mood enhancement is not established in literature. Hence, secondly we utilize a Randomised Controlled Trial (RCT), called Micro-Dosing of LSD (MDLSD), for assessing the impact of microdosing of LSD on mood. This study aims to advance wellbeing of individuals by employing a scientific and engineering approach to explore the effectiveness or otherwise of a microdosing protocol. Utilizing data from commercial wearable devices, along with statistical and machine learning algorithms, we seek to provide grounded insights into the effects of microdosing on sleep, a critical marker of wellbeing and mood. Our findings reveal a correlation between nocturnal cardiac activity and subsequent day mood scores, suggesting that heart-related metrics during sleep could indeed serve as reliable indicators of mood. Additionally, we observe that microdosing LSD has a statistically significant improvement on sleep. This work not only contributes to the foundational knowledge of wellbeing but also opens new avenues for the scientific exploration of mood enhancement strategies and the potential implications of psychedelic microdosing on sleep and overall wellbeing.