A DV E RT I S E M E N T FE AT U R E

A DV E RT I S E M E N T FE AT U R E

Kiyoto Kasai
Professor, Universityof Tokyo

Hiroshi Kunugi

Data science:
the new force
in mental healthresearchDirector, National
Center of Neurology
and Psychiatry

Tomohiro
Shinozaki

Paul Stang is optimistic that data science will be able to shed light on the complex
problem of dementia.

Junior Associate
Professor, Tokyo
University of Science

MakotoSuematsu

The potential of data science to REVOLUTIONIZE
MENTAL HEALTH RESEARCH was examinedat a recent symposium in TokyoPresident, Japan
Agency for MedicalResearch andDevelopment

Yasuhiro Suzuki

Data science is the key to a newera in mental health and neurological research, a symposiumin Tokyo has heard. “We’re at acrossroads right now, where data
science really promises to transform mental health research,”said I-han Chou, a Nature senior
editor. “Data science has thepower to bring in data from othersystems: data on our behaviours,
on our environment, and on oursocial interactions.”
The special symposium
on mental health and data
science, held in Tokyo on
24 October 2019, was sponsoredby Janssen, the pharmaceuticalcompany of Johnson & Johnson,
the University of Tokyo Centerof Innovation, Tokyo Universityof Science and the Health andGlobal Policy Institute. Chou
noted the huge strides that modern medicine has made in fields
such as cancer in contrast withthe limited advances that havebeen made in mental health.
This lack of progress is cause
for concern because neurological disorders represent one of
the biggest medical challengesof this century. Conditions suchas depression, autism, schizophrenia, and Alzheimer’s andParkinson’s diseases devastate
the lives of many individuals
and those that care for them.
They also impose a huge burden
on society. And it’s only goingto get worse as the world’s
population ages, increasing theprevalence of mental conditions
such as dementia, for which age
is a significant risk factor.
But the outlook is far
from bleak. Data science,
which specializes in finding
connections and order incomplex data sets, provides
an opportunity to develop
treatments for mental illnesses.

WE’RE ATA CRITICAL
TIME FORDATA SCIENCE
AND MENTALHEALTH“We’re at a critical time fordata science and mental health,”
Chou said. “There’s a lot ofpromise for a big shift. We’regoing to need very high-quality
data; we’re going to need a lot of
innovation in artificial intelligence and informatics; and we’regoing to need a lot of people doing basic and clinical research.”

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Vice-Minister for
Health and Chief
Medical & Global
Health Officer,
Ministry of Health,Labour and Welfare

I-han Chou believes that collaboration between all players in the dementia spaceis critical to making progress.

Some promising parameters
for assessing depression, a notoriously difficult condition to diagnose clinically, were discussed
by Hiroshi Kunugi, director of theDepartment of Mental Disorder
Research at the National Center
for Neurology and Psychiatry.
He described evidence thatchemicals in the body, such as
stress hormones and monoamines, could be used to monitor
depression. Another promisingavenue is measuring inflammation in the brain using inflammatory cytokines. Also, depression
could induce changes in the gut
microbiome, or perhaps the otherway around, with a recent study
showing a correlation between
depression and fewer ‘good
bacteria’ in the gut.
Mental disorders may evenbe revealed in speech. Shinichi
Tokuno, an associate professor
at the University of Tokyo, described a free smartphone app(MIMOSYS) developed by his

team that can analyze emotions
such as joy, anger, sorrow andcalm in a user’s voice. It thenemploys an algorithm to evaluate the likelihood of depression
with high accuracy. There areplans to develop it further, sothat it will be able to help to detect the potential for Parkinson’s
disease and dementia in thefuture. The app was developedin conjunction with the companies PST Inc and AGI Inc usingtheir Sensibility Technology, andis an excellent example of how
public–private collaborations canadvance the mental health field.
Data analysis is another area
which can help to unravel thecomplexity of mental illness.
Tomohiro Shinozaki, juniorassociate professor at the Tokyo
University of Science, talked
about how new informatics andbiostatistical methods are evolving to handle the interpretationof highly complex data sets andhow it can help inference andVice-Minister for Health, Yasuhiro Suzuki (second from left), outlines Japanese government priorities for facilitating research into mental health.

hypothesis testing, thereby
greatly improving the analysisof clinical trials.
A CRITICAL TIMEFOR COLLABORATION
Summing up, Chou noted theneed for collaboration between
all players — researchers inacademia and in industry, thefunders of research, and private
citizens. All those groups wererepresented at the symposium
and participated in a panel discussion on how to build strong
collaborations with a view to fostering innovation in data scienceand mental health. It was an example of the kind of discussions

Co-organized bythat are needed in order to apply
the power of data science to thecomplexity of mental health.
“We don’t really understandhow brain function supports
how we think, feel, behave andinteract,” said Chou. “In terms ofbasic biology, we still have a very
long way to go.”Paul Stang, vice presidentof global R&D epidemiology
at Janssen Research andDevelopment, noted the lack ofobjective tests for diagnosing
mental health disorders, the highplacebo effects observed in randomized trials, the large numberof people who are undiagnosedor misdiagnosed, and the stigma

associated with mental healthproblems. He also pointed outthat there are complex interactions between the mind and thebody, so that mental illness isoften accompanied by physicalillness, and vice versa. Summarizing the situation, Stang said:“We couldn’t have conceived
a more complex problem tosolve.” He stressed the needto create a culture that sees
medical records as a tool for research and not just as somethingnecessary for patient care. If we
can succeed in doing that, Stangis confident that data science
will significantly advance mental
health research.

Media partner

Shinichi Tokuno
Professor, Kanagawa
University of Human
ServiceProject Researcher,
University of Tokyo

Yutaka Hishiyama
Director-General,
Science and Technology
Policy Bureau, Ministryof Education, Culture,
Sports, Science andTechnology

Paul Stang
Vice President,
JanssenPharmaceuticals

Michelle Kramer
Vice President,
JanssenPharmaceuticals

MCEri YoshimuraManager, Health andGlobal Policy Institute

Moderator

I-han Chou
Nature Senior Editor,
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