A blood test can help your doctor to diagnose the diseases and prescribe the right treatment. But there is no such test to diagnose depression or mental illness. The search for a biological diagnostic test to measure depression has been going on for decades.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), depression is the main cause of disability worldwide. It is also a major contributor to the overall global burden of disease.
The traditional diagnosis for depression still relies on clinical assessments by doctors, psychologists, and psychiatrists based on symptoms. Due to this, there is a delay in diagnosis. And the longer the delay, the more difficult it is to treat the depression.
So, researchers from the University of South Australia have developed the world’s first test to predict mood disorders in people.
Based on the levels of a specific protein found in brain, it can monitor blood biomarkers linked to mood disorders. This revolutionary research could lead to new ways and methods to treat depression and bipolar disorder with a simple blood test.
Working in collaboration with the University of Adelaide and Kunming Medical University in China, the researchers identified 26 biomarkers in patients’ blood. These biomarkers could be linked to the incidence of mood disorders including depression, bipolar disorder, and mania.
The new blood test will allow doctors for the first time to determine what treatments will be most useful for individual patients.
