Amanda LaPera

Writer, Speaker, Teacher & Advocate
Mental Illness: Let's Do Something About It

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Detect Depression with a Blood Test? Research is Promising

Posted by Amanda LaPera on April 25, 2012 at 8:50 PM

        Imagine being able to detect depression in the same way diabetes is diagnosed--with a blood test.

        Early research carried out at Northwestern University in Chicago is evidence that this could eventually become reality. Several distinct markers were present in depressed teens, but those markers were not present in their healthy counterparts.

        This study provides hope that, with further corroborating studies, we may be able to squash the stigma surrounding a mental illness diagnosis. It provides hope that the public at large may one day be able accept mental illness for what it really is--a biological illness, no different than heart disease or diabetes.

         Read the entire article originally printed in the Los Angeles Times by Melissa Healy, April 17, 2012, and reprinted on the NAMI California website on April 24: http://www.namicalifornia.org/news.php?page=current-news&lang=eng&id=4329 .

Categories: Mental Health, Life

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2 Comments

Reply Mr. Nemo
01:59 AM on December 04, 2012 
This is, in a terribly cynical way, funny Mrs. Lapera. I doubt any of the correlating markers that characters low serotonin, and thus depression, could pass through the blood brain barrier. I have depression.
Reply Amanda LaPera
05:07 PM on February 17, 2013 
According to the article, "the team focused on the messenger molecules that carry out genetic instructions for producing or inhibiting proteins." This means that it has nothing to do with what crosses the blood brain barrier (which indeed is an issue for other tests and medications). Their "text examined a panel of 28 biological markers that circulate in the bloodstream and found that 11 of them could predict the presence of depression at accuracy levels that ranged from medium to large." They also found that "there were 18 biomarkers that could distinguish between adolescents who suffered from depression alone and those who had depression and anxiety."

While this is still in early stages of testing, it is the first time, to my knowledge, that researchers have tried to determine presence of depression in this way, so being able to use blood tests to diagnose depression in the future is possible.

Mr. Nemo says...
This is, in a terribly cynical way, funny Mrs. Lapera. I doubt any of the correlating markers that characters low serotonin, and thus depression, could pass through the blood brain barrier. I have depression.