What is the study about:

Neurological and psychiatric disorders (NPDs) are costly and disabling, with a rapidly increasing social and economic burden. Due to the clinically similar presentation of NPDs, undiagnosed cases, delayed diagnosis, and misdiagnosis are prevalent. These contribute to the illness burdens by preventing access to suitable treatment pathways and early intervention.

One possible solution is the tracking of alterations to speech and language, which are found to vary across different NPDs. These differences could act as promising profiling biomarkers. RHAPSODY is an observational study which aims to evaluate the use of speech profiling biomarkers for clinical assessments. It will further evaluate the feasibility of using remote speech tasks to elicit continuous speech in those with NPDs.

 

What to expect from participation in the study:

Participants will initially be screened and assessed virtually over a secure version of Zoom video-software. The assessments will include questionnaires relating to symptoms, assessments of medical history, and a range of recorded speech assessments. Within the 1 month following this initial assessment, participants will complete 12 remote speech tasks. These will be self-administered on the Novoic mobile application and will take 15 minutes to complete.

Participation is voluntary and withdrawal is possible at any stage of study participation. Withdrawal from the study will not affect any aspects of participants’ medical care or treatment.

 

Benefits of taking part:

People’s participation is valued and appreciated as it is essential to enabling researchers to understand and progress towards improving the diagnosis of neurodegenerative and psychiatric indications. All participants who are found to be eligible, and are willing to participate in the full study, will receive renumeration of £40.

 

Inclusion criteria:

 

• Native language is English.
• Has the capacity to understand and provide fully informed consent to the study.
• Willing to participate and have consented to the study after having been provided study details.
• Have access to and able to use or have a caregiver who has access to and is able to use, a smartphone device running an operation system of Android 7.0 or later, or iOS 11.0 or later.
• Access and ability to use a personal computer, notebook or tablet that is running one of a number of operating systems, is capable of audio recording, is able to connect to the internet and has access to one of a number of internet browser software.

 

Exclusion Criteria:

• A current diagnosis of alcohol or drug use disorder.
• History or presence of stroke within the past 2 years.
• History of a transient ischemic attack or unexplained loss of consciousness within the past 1 year.

Other similar studies for people with bipolar disorder

ELICE-BD: https://www.kcl.ac.uk/research/a-6-week-randomised-double-blind-placebo-controlled-multicentre-study-to-evaluate-the-efficacy-of-lurasidone-adjunctive-therapy-in-improving-cognitive-functioning-in-euthymic-bipolar-disorder-patients-elice-bd

SIMBA: https://www.kcl.ac.uk/research/imaging-5ht7-antagonist-effects-in-bipolar-disorder

RLINK: https://www.kcl.ac.uk/research/optimising-response-to-lithium-treatment-through-personalized-evaluation-of-individuals-with-bipolar-i-disorder-the-r-link-initiative