Improving Mental Health Treatment with Mobile Devices

Clozapine (CLZ) is the most effective antipsychotic for treating Schizophrenia, a lifelong debilitating and devastating disorder. Yet, CLZ remains underutilized because of its burdensome laboratory coordination for monitoring blood levels and white blood cell counts. Lab-on-a-Chip (LOC) devices are translational and mobile microsystems that provide numerous advantages in clinical diagnostics, bringing bench top methods to the point-of-care (POC). Utilizing these devices for POC monitoring of efficacy, safety, and adherence will enable personalized medicine and lead to better utilization of this medication. We present the first demonstration of an electrochemical LOC for real-time biosensing of CLZ towards POC Schizophrenia treatment monitoring. The biosensor is based on a multi-sensor approach that integrates hydrogel chitosan-modified semi-selective sensors. Here, we show the development of the microfabricated biosensor, the sensitivity and the detection limit are discussed, and the feasibility to detect CLZ in high interference biological samples such as Schizophrenia patients’ serum is demonstrated.