Professor Roger McIntyre explains the results of validation study - Cognition and THINC-it® tool aligns with unmet need in depression

Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) is a chronic disorder for many people. It is now a principle of chronic disease management that we “treat to target”, and we can’t treat what we don’t measure. It is important to have screening and measurement tools that allow us to sharpen the focus so we are clear what the therapeutic targets are. They also  inform our treatments, enhancing the precision, the consistency and the appropriateness of the treatments we select.

The THINC-it® tool is the first ever tool that has been developed to screen for the presence of cognitive deficits in adults who have MDD.

Patients and clinicians alike are underwhelmed by current outcomes in depression. There is strong motivation to improve them.

Cognitive  deficits in depression are not just common, they are a principal determinant of health outcomes: a treatable dimension of illness that should inform treatment selection.

The aim of the study was to validate the tool. We showed that THINC-it® can detect cognitive deficits in adults with major depression: almost 80% of MDD patients are at least half a standard deviation below the matched controls on their overall cognitive function.

The THINC-it® tool is pragmatic, patient administered, digital, and gamified – to facilitate patient engagement.