Molecular biomarker-based testing could improve early detection and diagnosis
Every year on April 7 the World Health Organization (WHO) holds World Health Day to commemorate the anniversary of the founding of WHO and to bring attention to a specific global health issue. This year the topic is depression, a common mental health disorder that affects individuals regardless of age, sex, or social status. For people living with depression, the condition can have a devastating impact on their ability to perform everyday tasks, earn a living, or maintain relationships, and can lead to suicide. Suicide is the second leading cause of death worldwide among people 15-29 years old.
Early detection and diagnosis can reduce suffering for people with depression and improve their quality of life. Speed and accuracy are important when it comes to diagnosing psychiatric disorders and getting patients onto an appropriate treatment regimen. Often, patients don’t respond to the first course of prescribed treatment and are moved through different medications or combinations of medications until a good fit is found. Having better diagnostic tools that can identify early on whether a person will respond or not to a specific medication could shift the landscape from stumbling through trial and error to a more successful outcome from the onset of treatment.
What role can molecular diagnostics play?
Tests that identify biomarker signatures in a patient’s blood are helping scientists explore the correlation between certain biomarkers and various types of mental health disorders. For example, a recent study investigated the hypothesis that inflammation plays a role in major depressive disorder. Cytokine levels of the subjects were measured with the MILLIPLEX® Multi-Analyte Profiling Human Cytokine/Chemokine Assay using Luminex® technology. In this study, the researchers did not find any association between inflammatory cytokines and major depressive disorder. Research in this area continues. On the clinical side, as diagnostics continue to improve, physicians could use biomarker-based molecular profiles alongside traditional methods of evaluation to further develop personalized medicine approaches for mental health conditions. For an excellent review of this emerging field, see this article: The emergence of point-of-care blood-based biomarker testing for psychiatric disorders: enabling personalized medicine in Biomarkers in Medicine.
It’s important to study depression to gain a better understanding of what depression is, and how it can be prevented and treated. Please take a moment today to think about how you can help to prevent or even treat depression.
We’re happy to stand with the WHO to recognize World Health Day, and we hope to see continued investment in preventing and treating depression.
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