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February 3rd, 2012 
FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda FRIDAY, Feb. 3 (HealthDay News) — Depression can be a tough
condition to diagnose accurately, but new research suggests that someday a
blood test might help.
It’s not clear how much the test might cost, and it needs more
stringent validation before it will be ready to be used in medical
offices. Still, “it appears that these results are promising, after
decades of research into finding a biological test for depression,” said
study author Dr. George Papakostas, an associate professor of psychiatry
at Harvard Medical School.
The study was funded by the Ridge Diagnostics Co. and appeared in a
recent issue of the journal Molecular Psychiatry.
It may seem like depression is an easy condition to diagnose and
doesn’t need a test to verify that it exists, but Papakostas said there
are several ways that a blood-based depression test might be helpful.
For one, he said, a test could help doctors who aren’t as experienced
in psychiatric disorders. Also, he said, a test may provide assistance to
doctors who aren’t sure about the proper diagnosis of a patient: “This
could be of help to them, in terms of guiding them in one way or another,”
he said.
Yet another use for a test would be to verify that a patient has
depression, and therefore help him or her accept the diagnosis. “The
majority of patients diagnosed with depression have no problem accepting
the need for treatment,” Papakostas said. However, “there is a minority
of patients who feel that validation of an underlying process is helpful,”
he added.
In their study, Papakostas and his team gave a blood test to 36
patients with depression and 43 people who weren’t depressed. The test
looked for levels of nine different “biomarkers” in the blood that are
associated with depression. These biomarkers are linked to inflammatory
processes, the development and maintenance of brain cells, and
interactions between brain structures associated with the stress response
and other functions.
The researchers found that the test correctly identified patients with
depression 91 percent of the time; the rest of the time it gave a
false-negative diagnosis (it failed to spot the depression). The test
correctly identified patients who weren’t depressed about 81 percent of
the time, giving false-positives the rest of the time.
The next step is to try to confirm these findings through further
research, Papakostas said.
He didn’t know how much the test might eventually cost, but he said it
won’t be as high as thousands of dollars and should be more akin to
routine blood tests.
The test appears to detect inflammation in the brain, which has been
linked to depression, Papakostas said. “That really doesn’t surprise
researchers. Chronic inflammation has been tied to a number of other
illnesses in the kidneys, lungs and heart,” he noted.
One outside expert said such a test would be welcome.
Dr. Michelle Riba, a professor of psychiatry at the University of
Michigan who’s familiar with the findings, said a blood test for
depression could be helpful in several ways.
For one, it would be useful to identify people, especially children and
adolescents, who are prone to depression and try to prevent it, she
said.
Also, she said, a test could help give physicians insight into how
depression treatments are working over time.
More information
For more on depression, had to the U.S. National Library of Medicine.
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