EEG Biomarkers for OUD: Diagnostic, Prognostic, and Predictive Applications

The US is suffering from a national opioid epidemic characterized by significant costs, overdoses, and deaths. Conventional Opioid Use Disorder (OUD) treatments (i.e., pharmacological and psychosocial interventions) are characterized by limited or diminishing efficacy, ceiling effects, and/or serious side effects. The availability of validated OUD biomarkers would be a key step in the development and approval of better treatments. Ultimately, the scarcity of OUD biomarkers represents a significant unmet need in the fight against opioid addiction as recognized by NIDA and the FDA with their support for development of Medical Device Development Tools (MDDT) and biomarker tests for OUD. Advances in neuroimaging techniques, and in particular recent evidence supports electroencephalography (EEG) as a promising candidate to investigate the correlation between addiction and brain state. To address the clear medical and market need for OUD biomarkers, this is a feasibility study to identify and assess potential EEG biomarkers for OUD diagnoses, disease monitoring, and prediction of OUD treatment response.