ASPM Aspect Medical Systems (MM)

Aspect Medical Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: ASPM) will present study results from the BRITE (Biomarkers for Rapid Identification of Treatment Effectiveness) trial in major depression at the Society of Biological Psychiatry and American Psychiatric Association Annual Meetings in Washington D.C. this week. BRITE trial results demonstrate that Aspect�s EEG-based Antidepressant Treatment Response (ATR) indicator is a significant predictor of patient response and remission when used after one week of treatment with the antidepressant escitalopram. An economic analysis using the BRITE data to model the potential health economic impact of ATR-guided treatment will also be presented this week at the annual meeting of the International Society for Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research (ISPOR) in Toronto. �We are pleased that the results of the BRITE trial indicate that early changes in frontal EEG signals carry important information about future clinical response, as this reinforces our confidence that an EEG-based biomarker has the potential to help clinicians improve the care of patients suffering from depression,� said Andrew Leuchter, M.D., professor of Psychiatry at the Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior at UCLA, principal investigator for the trial, and chair of Aspect�s Neuroscience Advisory Board. The BRITE trial was conducted in collaboration with leading investigators from 10 facilities across the United States and enrolled 375 patients. Patient response was defined by researchers as a 50 percent improvement in depression symptoms as measured by the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HAM-D) after seven weeks of treatment, and remission was defined as recovery from depression (HAM-D