Personalizing Antipsychotic Therapy

EPSpeak provides a non-invasive monitoring tool that identifies eight drug-induced extrapyramidal symptoms (EPS) including: gait disturbances; slowness of movement (bradykinesia); excessive salivation (sialorrhea); muscle rigidity; tremor; restlessness (akathisia); involuntary muscle contractions (dystonia) and involuntary repetitive movements (dyskinesia) using only 10 seconds of recorded speech.

Trial and Error Approach

After psychiatrists prescribe anti-psychotic treatment, for schizophrenia, bipolar or treatment resistant depression they need to closely monitor for side effects given it is impossible to predict how their patients will respond.

Time Consuming Monitoring

Assessment of EPS requires a neurological assessment at the end of long psychiatric consultations over sequential assessments. This can delay the optimisation of antipsychotic medication doses.

Subjective Assessments

EPS assessments rely on clinical judgment and expertise of the psychiatrist and are susceptible to human error leading to inconsistent or missed diagnosis of these debilitating symptoms. Clinical recollection of previous assessments conducted often a week apart can be difficult.

The EPSpeak Solution

• 10-Second Assessment EPSpeak can assess all 8 EPS symptoms after just 10 seconds of continuous voice recording. No lengthy examinations required.

• Monitoring EPSpeak can record all 8 EPS symptoms at each assessment enabling the immediate clinical insight and progress from previous reviews.

• Remote Assessments EPSpeak would enable assessment over audio-visual link Psychiatric assessments where clinical assessments of EPS symptoms is difficult. Also, patients could monitor their own symptoms using any digital device such as mobile phones, tablets, or desktops.

• Personalized Treatment Plans Assists psychiatrists with patient-centred care given EPSpeak will facilitate tailored prescribing based on EPS symptoms and rapid titration of medications if they are not present improving outcomes.

• Clinically Trusted EPSpeak detects these EPS symptoms and rates them across five severity levels using scientifically validated vocal biomarkers, ensuring reliable and interpretable results for clinicians.

Voice-Based Assessment of Extrapyramidal Symptoms Using Deep Learning link to paper