William Perry, Ph.D., associate professor of psychiatry and associate director of Neuropsychiatry/Behavioral Medicine at UCSD School of Medicine, studies information processing and problem solving deficits of schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and other psychiatric disorders. His research integrates neuropsychology* and psychophysiology* in order to understand the clinical phenomena associated with these illnesses. Dr. Perry recently received a grant from the National Institutes of Health for a very intriguing study.
The unique movement patterns of patients with bipolar disorder (also known as manic depression) will be tracked and evaluated by psychiatric researchers at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) School of Medicine using the LifeShirt System from VivoMetrics. The sometimes chaotic movement of bipolar patients during their "manic" phase indicates specific changes in brain function. Increased knowledge in this area could lead to new therapies.
The LifeShirt which provides continuous ambulatory monitoring will enable researchers to draw parallels between human and animal motor activity while studying brain function. Using the LifeShirt, physiologic parameters of subjects with bipolar disorder will be measured before and after medication treatment to determine how different classes of medications affect behavior.
"It's too difficult to measure the behavior of people unless you have an apparatus like the LifeShirt that allows the person to be mobile, and also has the ability to take precise measurements," said William Perry, Ph.D., associate professor of psychiatry and associate director of Neuropsychiatry/Behavioral Medicine, UCSD School of Medicine.
Dr. Perry, who will conduct the new study, noted that the LifeShirt allows researchers to continuously collect objective data on motor activity (hyperactivity) and highly repetitive movements, which are common features in patients who are in the manic phase of bipolar disorder. This work offers a promising and novel approach to learning about the underlying brain functioning of patients with bipolar disease.
"We now have the ability to objectively quantify motor activity in a continuous fashion to study behavioral patterns with a new level of sophistication," Perry said. "This truly is a major breakthrough in our research and we're very excited about the LifeShirt System. It certainly has tremendous research application in this study as well as others in the future."
About the LifeShirt System
The LifeShirt System is the first non-invasive, ambulatory monitoring system that continuously collects, records and analyzes a broad range of cardiopulmonary parameters. Users wear a lightweight, machine washable garment with embedded sensors that collect pulmonary, cardiac, posture and activity signals. Data collected by integrated peripheral devices measure blood pressure, blood oxygen saturation, EEG/EOG, periodic leg movement, temperature, end tidal CO2 and cough. An electronic diary captures subjective user input and all physiologic and subject data are correlated over time. The LifeShirt System has received FDA clearance and EMEA approval (CE Mark).
*Neuropsychology - The branch of psychology that deals with the relationship between the nervous system, especially the brain, and cerebral or mental functions such as language, memory, and perception.
*Psychophysiology - The study of correlations between the mind, behavior, and bodily mechanisms.
