The study, published yesterday in the journal Translational Psychiatry, unveiled a test that researchers say determined the presence or absence of early-onset major depressive disorder, or MDD, in a group of adolescent experimental subjects.
MDD, which affects adolescents and young adults, is caused by both genetic and environmental factors, and each leaves different sorts of hints, or markers, in the bloodstream. By examining animal models of the disease from both these angles, the team of researchers—led by Eva Redei, a professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine—was able to determine which markers would be most likely to show up in humans with MDD, and to narrow it down to a set that they could use to test for the disease. When the researchers applied the test to a group of adolescents—14 with the disease and a control group of 14 without it—they found that it successfully distinguished those with the disease from those without it.
“The idea is that a blood test can be developed—and this was the first proof—to diagnose depression,” Redei told The Daily Beast. “Just like any other laboratory test, there is a normal range, and then you’re tested and you’re either in the normal range or out of it.”
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MDD, which affects adolescents and young adults, is caused by both genetic and environmental factors, and each leaves different sorts of hints, or markers, in the bloodstream. By examining animal models of the disease from both these angles, the team of researchers—led by Eva Redei, a professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine—was able to determine which markers would be most likely to show up in humans with MDD, and to narrow it down to a set that they could use to test for the disease. When the researchers applied the test to a group of adolescents—14 with the disease and a control group of 14 without it—they found that it successfully distinguished those with the disease from those without it.
“The idea is that a blood test can be developed—and this was the first proof—to diagnose depression,” Redei told The Daily Beast. “Just like any other laboratory test, there is a normal range, and then you’re tested and you’re either in the normal range or out of it.”
- More Here
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