The Lucida Project

The PHQ-9 is a 9-question screening tool used to assess depression severity. Each of the 9 items evaluates symptoms over the last 2 weeks and is scored from 0 (not at all) to 3 (nearly every day), resulting in a total possible score ranging from 0 to 27. Higher scores indicate higher depression severity.

The GAD-7 is a 7-item tool used to screen for Generalized Anxiety Disorder and assess symptom severity. Respondents rate how often they've been bothered by anxiety symptoms over the past two weeks on a scale of 0 (not at all) to 3 (nearly every day). Total scores range from 0 to 21, where higher scores indicate greater levels of anxiety.

This is a 12-item questionnaire used to assess various domains of flourishing, or human well-being. It is scored on a 0- to 10-point Likert scale where 0 = poor and 10 = excellent. Mean scores are reported for a range from 0 to 120 where higher scores indicate greater human well-being.

Sleep disturbance will be assessed using the computer adaptive version of the PROMIS Sleep Disturbance measure. This measure produces scores a T-score with a mean of 50 and a standard deviation of 10. Higher scores indicate greater sleep disturbance.

The SRET is a cognitive-behavioral paradigm used to measure how individuals process and recall information relating to themselves.

Measured using a video recording task

Dried blood spot samples will be used to measure two inflammatory cytokines (C-reactive protein (CRP) and interleukin-6 (IL-6)). Additionally mRNA assays will be used to detect and quantify inflammatory gene expression detect and monitor cellular immune responses. Analyses will focus on transcripts from ~200 genes known to be involved in the regulation of inflammation, and will consider key transcripts (e.g., IL-1beta, TNF-alpha) as well as summary measures reflecting the activity of transcriptional networks that coordinate inflammation (NF-kB, AP-1).

Dried blood spot samples will be used to measure two inflammatory cytokines (C-reactive protein (CRP) and interleukin-6 (IL-6)). Additionally mRNA assays will be used to detect and quantify inflammatory gene expression detect and monitor cellular immune responses. Analyses will focus on transcripts from ~200 genes known to be involved in the regulation of inflammation, and will consider key transcripts (e.g., IL-1beta, TNF-alpha) as well as summary measures reflecting the activity of transcriptional networks that coordinate inflammation (NF-kB, AP-1).

Genetic analyses of the microbiome of the fecal sample (microorganism DNA, not that of the person) will be performed. Reported here are the observed (total number of distinct taxa) and calculated (Chao1 = N + S2 / (2 D), where N is the number of observed OTUs (Operational Taxonomic Units), S is the number of singleton OTUs, and D is the number of doublet OTUs) number of species represented in the sample. Chao1 is a species richness calculator that accounts for rare species.