CALM-Brain: Advancing Brain Research and Neurotechnology

Explore CALM-Brain, its role in advancing neuroscience, brain mapping, and innovative neurotechnology for better understanding brain function.

Table of Contents

Context: National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences and the National Centre for Biological Sciences launched CALM-Brain to advance research on neuropsychiatric disorders.

About CALM-Brain

First national psychiatric database: It is a digital repository of brain structure and function data from Indian patients with major psychiatric disorders.
Origin: Initiated in 2016 under the Accelerator Program for Discovery in Brain Disorders using Stem Cells (ADBS) supported by DBT and Pratiksha Trust.
Access: openly accessible to researchers and clinicians to facilitate collaborative neuroscience research.
Types of Data Collected: clinical, neuro-imaging, behavioural, genetic.
Large participant: contains data from over 2,000 individuals belonging to about 900 families

Major Psychiatric Disorders Covered

Disorder	Description
Addiction	Compulsive dependence on substances or behaviours.
Bipolar disorder	Mood disorder with alternating mania and depression.
Dementia	Progressive loss of memory and cognitive abilities.
Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD)	Disorder involving repetitive intrusive thoughts and actions.
Schizophrenia	Severe mental illness affects perception and thinking.

Significance of the Repository

Indian population data: Provides large-scale psychiatric datasets from Indian patients, which were previously limited globally.
Early diagnosis through biomarkers: Helps identify neurocognitive biomarkers for early detection of mental disorders.
Supports personalised treatment: Large datasets can guide targeted therapies based on biological and genetic factors.
Advances biological research: Linkage with stem-cell repositories enables study of disease mechanisms at cellular level.