[Project 2501]

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PROBLEM: Depression has traditionally been diagnosed with a questionnaire that assesses patients' reported symptoms. This process varies greatly, however, since it relies heavily on the clinician's experience and resources.


METHODOLOGY: To test if an objective biological test could improve diagnosis accuracy, scientists recruited 36 adults with major depression and 43 healthy participants for a blood screening. They measured the levels of nine biomarkers associated with depressive symptoms, such as inflammation, the development and maintenance of neurons, and the interaction between brain structures involved with stress response and other key functions.

RESULTS: The blood test indicated the presence of depression in 33 of the 36 patients and registered false positives for eight of the 43 participants in the control group. The scientists validated these findings with a second trial where 31 of the 34 depressed patients were also successfully diagnosed.

CONCLUSION: Blood tests can detect depression.

CAVEAT: The scientists are planning on conducting larger-scale studies in clinical settings to fine-tune their test. For now, though, study co-author John Bilello hopes that "the biological basis of this test may provide patients with insight into their depression as a treatable disease rather than a source of self-doubt and stigma."

SOURCE:
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, "Assessment of a Multi-Assay, Serum-Based Biological Diagnostic Test for Major Depressive disorder: a Pilot and Replication Study," is published in the journal Molecular Psychiatry.

[eagleseven]

I work in Hematology...so this means more business. Yippee!

Except for the damned "inflammation" marker. By "blood inflammation" marker they mean Westergren Sedimentation Rates. I HATE HATE HATE sed rates!


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It's like watching paint dry. And setting them all up requires a carpal-tunnel inducing braindead pipetting procedure. I wish the docs would just be happy with C-Reactive-Protein tests instead. BAH!

[RBM]

Originally Posted by eagleseven To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 2 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.

I work in Hematology...so this means more business. Yippee! Except for the damned "inflammation" marker. By "blood inflammation" marker they mean Westergren Sedimentation Rates. I HATE HATE HATE sed rates! To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 2 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. It's like watching paint dry. And setting them all up requires a carpal-tunnel inducing braindead pipetting procedure. I wish the docs would just be happy with C-Reactive-Protein tests instead. BAH!

Sounds like an application ready-made for automation.

[Polymath20]

	Originally Posted by RBM To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 2 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
	Sounds like an application ready-made for automation.

There's probably equipment which can automate it but it probably costs $700,000 to buy plus a $100,000 annual maintenance contract. They'd rather pay Eagle to get carpal!

In all seriousness, this is awesome though because now the age-old "There is no medical test for depression" is not true!

[scorpiomover]

	Originally Posted by Project 2501 To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 2 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
	RESULTS: The blood test indicated the presence of depression in 33 of the 36 patients and registered false positives for eight of the 43 participants in the control group. The scientists validated these findings with a second trial where 31 of the 34 depressed patients were also successfully diagnosed.

So 8.33% of people with Major Depression Disorder were missed, and 18.60% of those without were declared depressed. Considering that it would need to be used for countries with several millions of people, thousands would be misdiagnosed and maybe a lot more. I'd be abit skittish about relying on it completely at the moment. But, if a psychiatrist already has strong reason to think the patient has MDD, I'd consider using it as a second opinion.

[eagleseven]

Originally Posted by scorpiomover To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 2 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.

So 8.33% of people with Major Depression Disorder were missed, and 18.60% of those without were declared depressed. Considering that it would need to be used for countries with several millions of people, thousands would be misdiagnosed and maybe a lot more. I'd be abit skittish about relying on it completely at the moment. But, if a psychiatrist already has strong reason to think the patient has MDD, I'd consider using it as a second opinion.

That level of accuracy and specificity is actually quite good for a laboratory test. We joke that the sed rate is the sickness test. If the sed rate is elevated, it means the patient is somehow sick and should probably be admitted to the hospital until they figure out why.

I liken it to the doc's security blanket. Can't discharge the patient without a normal sed rate!

---------- Post added 02-20-2012 at 10:02 PM ----------

	Originally Posted by Polymath20 To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 2 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
	There's probably equipment which can automate it but it probably costs $700,000 to buy plus a $100,000 annual maintenance contract. They'd rather pay Eagle to get carpal!

It has to do with volume, sadly. The smallest fully-automated sed rate analyzers run 80 sed rates an hour...we'll get half that many per hour during the busiest hours of the day, and almost none during the graveyard and early morning shifts. Meaning the expensive robot would be collecting dust most of the day.

[HIDE="Domo Arigato Mr. Roboto"]
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[/HIDE]

In contrast, I can manually set up about 30 per hour using the carpal-tunnel inducing sed rate reader. And the reader only costs a few thousand, as opposed to a few hundred thousand.

[HIDE="Ancient POS"]
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[/HIDE]

So onward we march to carpal-tunnel land!

[GSOgymrat]

Very interesting! I look forward to seeing additional research. It would certainly help with obtaining an accurate diagnosis and choosing effective treatment.

[TheStranger]

Interesting diagnostic implications for depression. I've heard similar tests were being developed for ADHD, but nothing complete yet, to my knowledge. Now, if only the treatments themselves would be better suited to those left in the cold by modern psychiatry (those that don't respond to treatment).