VivoSense published a Karger review article, The Case for the Patient-Centric Development of Novel Digital Sleep Assessment Tools in Major Depressive Disorder.
Background
Depression, the leading cause of disability worldwide, imposes a significant burden on public health. Sleep disturbance is a core symptom of depression affecting most patients. Despite treatment, sleep issues often persist and some medications can worsen them. Disturbed sleep impacts patients’ quality of life and increases the risk of recurrence, relapse, and suicide. The lack of reliable, low-burden objective measures to assess sleep disturbance hinders the development of new treatments.
Summary
Developing improved digital measurement tools for clinical trials in major depressive disorder could highlight sleep as a key treatment focus. This perspective piece explores the path toward creating new digital measures, reviews the evidence on the significance of sleep in depression, and summarizes current sleep assessment methods, including digital health technologies.
Key Messages
We urge the qualification of new digital outcome measures to assess sleep disturbance as a critical health aspect for patients. By promoting sleep as an essential clinical development outcome, we aim to ensure that sleep disturbance will no longer be the forgotten symptom of depression.