We ran across a recent article that promised a “blood test for depression” and thought how strange it was that this article was being republished in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry. After all we wrote about a blood test for depression based on an article that appeared in translational psychiatry just a few months ago. Imagine my surprise when I …
Behind the Scenes
A lot of what takes place that makes it possible for us to provide the best patient care is not visible. We spend lots of time reviewing records, participating in case conferences and informal consultation to make sure that nothing gets missed in our assessment and ongoing treatment. I spent the past weekend going over patient records for everyone in …
Brain Morphometry Separates Bipolar vs Unipolar
Brain Morphometry refers to a technique for comparing the sizes of different structures in the brain. A new study suggests that using MRI scans of brains it is possible to distinguish between bipolar and unipolar depression with some degree of accuracy (70 – 80% accuracy). The study looked at two separate groups of patients, one from Munster, Germany and one …
Genetic Testing for Depression Drugs
Genetic testing for depression drugs is a new approach to selecting medications that may have value, especially in patients with treatment resistant depression. We have been using the Genecept Assay for patients with treatment resistant depression and have found that the results improve our ability to choose effective treatments. Patients who have failed multiple adequate trials of medications are much less likely to …
Blood Test for Depression
How many times has a new patient in the clinic asked, “isn’t there a blood test for depression?” Always in the past we had to say that there were no reliable tests that could identify depression. There was some evidence that functional brain imaging could do so but the technique was expensive and experimental. In an article published in the …
Predicting Bipolar Disorder
Predicting bipolar disorder might allow early intervention that could change the course of the condition, or prevent at risk adults or adolescents from developing severe mood swings. But is predicting bipolar disorder a reasonable goal? What is the science behind this effort? The August 2014 issue of Bipolar Disorders (the official journal of the International Society for Bipolar Disorders) has …
Genetic Testing Guides Treatment for Bipolar or Depression
We have been using a relatively new assay from a company called Genomind (the Genecept test) in some of our patients with bipolar and/or depression. The test involves a saliva sample which is analyzed for ten gene variants that may be useful in guiding treatment. So far we find that in about half of the patients with treatment resistant depression …
Biomarker for Suicidality
A just published study by Jerry Guintivano, et al, in the July issue of the American Journal of Psychiatry reports having identified a gene that seemed to predict suicide. The study used one population to identify the risk association and then confirmed it prospectively in a second population. Zachary Kaminsky, Ph.D., an assistant professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at …