How ColdAI builds the technology behind Frida.
If you have ever read a sentence like 'PANSS total decreased by 15 points,' this is the scale being described. The PANSS is the workhorse of antipsychotic trials, and the structure of its 30 items shapes how the field talks about schizophrenia.
Rating scalesWhere the PANSS gives you 7 positive items, the SAPS gives you 34 — including detailed coverage of formal thought disorder. It remains the standard instrument when researchers want to look closely at positive symptoms.
TechnologyFrida turns short daily check-ins into a longitudinal picture of cognitive stability. Here is how it works, what it does not do, and why we built it this way.
Rating scalesNegative symptoms are the hardest to measure because they are absences rather than presences. The SANS was the first scale that took them seriously, and it still anchors much of the field.
Rating scalesSixty years after it was first published, the BPRS is still in use because it is short, broad, and easy to teach. It is the rating scale equivalent of the screwdriver in the toolbox.
EngineeringAn engineering and product story about how Frida — a calm, evidence-informed schizophrenia stability app — is being built at ColdAI LLC.
Rating scalesThe CGI takes thirty seconds and asks the clinician one question: how sick is this person, and how much have they changed? Its simplicity is exactly its strength.
TechnologyA relapse rarely arrives without warning. Sleep, energy, and routine usually shift days or weeks earlier. Tracking those shifts well is one of the highest-leverage things you can do.
Rating scalesTrials use elaborate clinician-administered scales because precision is the whole point. Clinics need brevity and feasibility. The mismatch is solvable, but it has to be acknowledged.
TechnologyPutting on a headset to walk into a virtual coffee shop sounds gimmicky. The largest VR trial in schizophrenia to date suggests the effect is real for the right patient.
Rating scalesSymptoms are not the same as life. Functional scales measure the things that actually matter to most people in recovery — work, relationships, household activities, leisure, and self-care.
TechnologyAVATAR therapy gives a face to the voice and lets the patient confront it directly. Two large UK trials suggest the effect is real, especially for distress.
Rating scalesSchizophrenia has historically been measured by clinicians, not patients. Newer self-report scales — CAPE, PQ-B, BAVQ-R, QPR — are changing that and giving patients a real seat at the measurement table.
TechnologyDigital therapeutics are software you can be prescribed. The category is small, the evidence is mixed, and the path to mainstream use has been bumpy.
TechnologyTelepsychiatry exploded in 2020 and has not contracted back. The evidence in schizophrenia is now substantial — and largely reassuring, with caveats.
TechnologySmartwatches, Fitbits and rings now produce huge volumes of data. Here's what's genuinely useful for schizophrenia, what's still research, and what to ignore.
TechnologyPhone reminders are not magic — but for the right person, the right app can meaningfully reduce missed doses. Here's what the evidence supports.