[acb-hsp] Blood Tests to Diagnose Mental Disorders?

[peter altschul]

VeriPsych Says It Can Spot Depression, Schizophrenia in Blood
  BY Ariel Schwartz Wed Mar 30, 2011
  Almost 50% of psychiatric patients get a change in diagnosis 
over a 10-year period--meaning they may end up taking a slew of 
unhelpful drugs until doctors finally decide what mental illness 
they have.  But what if a simple blood test could help discern 
whether patients have schizophrenia, major depression, or bipolar 
disorder? Rules-Based Medicine, a company that specializes in 
research and development for drugs and diagnostics, thinks it 
can.
  Six months ago, the company launched VeriPsych, the first blood 
test for schizophrenia.  The test, developed in conjunction with 
Cambridge University, relies on 51 biomarkers in the blood that 
are associated with schizophrenia (pathways are for inflammation, 
metabolism, cell-to-cell signaling, and more) according to 
samples of blood from patients with a confirmed diagnosis.  It is 
a protein-based test in the blood--not a genetic test signaling 
that you have a risk of the disease.
  Since its launch, psychiatrists have ordered the test for 
approximately five hundred patients.  That's not an unexpectedly 
low number, explains Dr.  Michael Spain, the Chief Medical 
Officer for VeriPsych.  "There's not so much resistance as 
trepidation.  Physicians that routinely do lab tests understand 
that [the doctor] puts it all together and makes the diagnosis.  
Psychiatrists have it in their minds that the test makes the 
diagnosis," he says.
  The VeriPsych team has tried to rule out the possibility that 
biomarkers used in the test are actually the result of, say, 
drugs used to treat schizophrenia.  That would mean anyone who 
has taken drugs for the disease would have the biomarkers  "The 
advantage of working with Cambridge is they had access to three 
German academic centers that had significant numbers of 
drug-naive schizophrenics that have never been treated," says 
Spain.  That's hard to find in the U.S., where schizophrenics are 
often treated with a variety of drugs before finally making it 
into a psychiatrist's office.
  Schizophrenics are also diagnosed relatively young (average age 
of diagnosis is 21), so there is less of a chance that the 
biomarkers could be the result of other diseases.  A similar 
blood test for Alzheimer's would have to rule out the possibility 
that the biomarkers are related to heart disease, Type 2 
diabetes, or other issues that arise as people age.
  Schizophrenia is just the beginning for VeriPsych.  By the end 
of 2011, Spain and his team will have a differential blood test 
for major depression and schizophrenia ready for the market  
Next year, they plan to add bipolar disorder into the mix.  
VeriPsych and Rules-Based Medicine may have more success with 
these tests, simply because depressive and bipolar patients are 
often treated in primary care facilities, where doctors are 
comfortable using blood tests for diagnosis.  The depression 
market is also 10 times the size of the schizophrenia market--13 
million people in the UddS either carry the diagnosis or soon 
will.
  At the very least, these blood tests stand to change the way we 
think about mental illness.  "These are systemic diseases," Spain 
says.  "It's just that the main symptoms come from the brain."
  Copyright Ággc) 2011 Mansueto Ventures LLC.  All rights 
reserved.