First Blood Test for Depression?
Northwestern University researchers recently identified nine RNA blood markers unique to patients with major depression and developed a blood test they believe could diagnose the disorder in adults.
Their study is published in the September 16 online Translational Psychiatry.
Their research involved 64 adults: 32 patients diagnosed with major depressive disorder after a clinical interview, and 32 control subjects without major depressive disorder.
By analyzing participants’ blood samples, researchers discovered nine RNA blood markers with significantly different levels in patients with depression compared to patients without depression.
Such markers, researchers said, offer an objective basis for a depression diagnosis.
After participants with depression received 18 weeks of cognitive behavioral therapy, their blood was analyzed again. Researchers identified changed levels of specific biomarkers in patients who—according to clinical interviews and self-reported symptoms—benefitted from the intervention.
Those changes, researchers said, provide the first biological evidence demonstrating the effects of cognitive behavioral therapy.
Researchers also examined the nine RNA blood markers at baseline of patients who then went on to improve with cognitive behavioral therapy. They found a distinct biomarker pattern, or fingerprint, that was not present in patients who did not improve with cognitive behavioral therapy.
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