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from the Not-sure-whether-to-feel-happy-or-sad-about-this dept.
Blood Test Developed to Detect Depression and Bipolar Disorder:
While current diagnosis and treatment approaches are largely trial and error, a breakthrough study by Indiana University School of Medicine researchers sheds new light on the biological basis of mood disorders, and offers a promising blood test aimed at a precision medicine approach to treatment.
Led by Alexander B. Niculescu, MD, PhD, Professor of Psychiatry at IU School of Medicine, the study was published today (April 8, 2021) in the high impact journal Molecular Psychiatry. The work builds on previous research conducted by Niculescu and his colleagues into blood biomarkers that track suicidality as well as pain, post-traumatic stress disorder, and Alzheimer's disease.
"We have pioneered the area of precision medicine in psychiatry over the last two decades, particularly over the last 10 years. This study represents a current state-of-the-art outcome of our efforts," said Niculescu. "This is part of our effort to bring psychiatry from the 19th century into the 21st century. To help it become like other contemporary fields such as oncology. Ultimately, the mission is to save and improve lives."
The team's work describes the development of a blood test, composed of RNA biomarkers, that can distinguish how severe a patient's depression is, the risk of them developing severe depression in the future, and the risk of future bipolar disorder (manic-depressive illness). The test also informs tailored medication choices for patients.
[...] In addition to the diagnostic and therapeutic advances discovered in their latest study, Niculescu's team found that mood disorders are underlined by circadian clock genes — the genes that regulate seasonal, day-night and sleep-wake cycles.
"That explains why some patients get worse with seasonal changes, and the sleep alterations that occur in mood disorders," said Niculescu.
Journal Reference:
H. Le-Niculescu, K. Roseberry, S. S. Gill, et al. Precision medicine for mood disorders: objective assessment, risk prediction, pharmacogenomics, and repurposed drugs [open], Molecular Psychiatry (DOI: 10.1038/s41380-021-01061-w)
(Score: 5, Informative) by Immerman on Friday April 09 2021, @01:14AM (4 children)
Not hardly. You want to tell me you knew Robin Williams was depressed for decades before his death?
Depressed people usually go out of their way to pretend to be fine. As a rule other people are singularly unhelpful, even hurtful, if they know you're depressed. From empty platitudes and unhelpful advice, to chastisement to "pull yourself together", to outright avoiding you because you're a downer. Nothing good comes from publicly admitting to depression. If you meet somebody who is obviously depressed, it's a good bet they're already so far gone they can't even be bothered to try to avoid the fresh barbs anymore.
Or possibly they're goth - that tends to look a lot like depression to many people who don't understand it.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Arik on Friday April 09 2021, @02:27AM (3 children)
Most of my life I was mostly manic. People thought I was depressed when I was completely the opposite. They were so annoying.
Now I'm depressed. Everyone thinks I'm manic. I've learned. Act peppy and friendly! That way you get out of there more quickly.
<whispers>Why are you such a stupid asshole? Would you really like to know? Well, pay your fee, remove your clothes, and Yvette will show you how; You went to school where you were taught to fear and to obey, be cheerful, fit in, or someone might think you're weird. Life can be perfect. People can be trusted. Someday, I will fall in love; a nice quiet home of my very own. Free from all the pain. Happy and having fun all the time. It never happened, did it?</whispers>
People don't have a clue.
This might be a step forward. Or a step backward. Hard to tell from a pop-sci blurb. Sounds like they did the 21st century thing - generated a bunch of numbers, threw them at a computer and told it to find correlations.
Correlation is not causation. But closely inspecting correlations sometimes elucidates correlation.
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
(Score: 2) by Immerman on Friday April 09 2021, @01:41PM (1 child)
Sounds like they don't actually care about causation at this point - a high degree of correlation is all that's needed for a powerful diagnostic tool.
Now, if they can determine a causal chain, perhaps this might lead to a depression treatment that attacks the root of the problem, rather than just mitigating the symptoms. But even if they never do, *if* their results are accurate and they've developed a blood test that can say "This person is suffering from Class 3 depression", that could save a whole lot of headaches for people trying hard to care enough to get treatment.
(Score: 2) by Arik on Wednesday April 14 2021, @02:35AM
High church scientism in a nutshell.
See they're correlating one thing they don't understand with another thing they don't understand.
Odds are good they'll misunderstand the correlation as well.
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 09 2021, @01:53PM
I'm guessing they not depressed because of the blood test... but there's me confusing correlation and causation.