Diagnosing bipolar disorder is a difficult task. There are no known chemical markers and prescribing the wrong treatment can be absolutely harmful to the patient. Now, a new study clarifies this point, showing that checking the levels of certain proteins would serve as biomarkers of what was previously known as “manic depression.”
Unlike the normal ups and downs that most of us experience throughout our lives, people who suffer from bipolar disorder can experience it in different phases or stages, all of them very extreme: from the highest slopes, with manic episodes, to the most casualties with episodes of great depression.
There are four ways that bipolar disorder can present itself : bipolar I disorder: (manic episodes lasting at least 1 week or depressive episodes often 2 weeks in duration); bipolar II disorder (depressive episodes and hypomanic episodes); Unspecified bipolar disorder (there are bipolar symptoms, but they do not fit the above criteria); cyclothymic disorder (episodes of hypomania and mild depression for at least 2 years but not meeting the requirements of the above).
The symptoms of bipolar disorder have a devastating effect on everyday life, whether at work, personal … As it shares symptoms with schizophrenia and other personality disorders, correctly diagnosing a bipolar disorder is not easy. Performing brain scans, blood tests or external examinations, only serve to rule out other pathologies but not to get the diagnosis right, so it was necessary to find something else.
Thus, an investigation carried out by the Mayo Clinic (USA) analyzed 272 different proteins in the blood of 288 patients (174 with bipolar disorder and 141 individuals as a control group), managing to identify that 73 of the proteins measured differed Between the four study groups and 6 of them were significantly different between the bipolar disorder and the control group.
Although the sample is small, its resolution opens up hope for a much faster and more accurate diagnosis , since, although there is no cure for bipolar disorder, many people do respond well to treatment.
“The potential of having a biological test to help accurately diagnose bipolar disorder would set a great step forward in medical practice. It would help physicians choose the most appropriate treatment for difficult-to-diagnose individuals, ”explains Mark Frye, leader of the study.
The work has been published in the journal Translational Psychiatry .
