'Depression blood test' still experimental Today the Metro has
boldly claimed that a “blood test diagnoses depressed
teenagers”, while the Daily Mail says that a new blood test “is
first to diagnose depression in teenagers”. Currently,
depression is diagnosed by a doctor using validated diagnostic
methods. A doctor will question how a person is feeling and ask
about their general health and wellbeing, rather than using a
blood test. These headlines are based on a small study looking
at whether analysing blood samples could provide a means to test
for early-onset major depressive disorder (MDD), defined in the
study as a serious psychiatric condition occurring in people
under 25 years of age. In clinical practice, MDD is often just
referred to as “depression”. The study tested blood samples from
people with and without MDD and found 11 genetic markers that
differed between the two, indicating that those genetic markers
were potentially linked to the condition. However, only limited
conclusions can be drawn fro