Diagnosing depression, that silent disorder that combines unhappiness, reluctance and guilt, is not easy, since none of the symptoms guarantees an accurate diagnosis on its own. If we take into account that one in six people will suffer from it at some stage in their life , prevention becomes an imperative, especially in the youngest.
Now, thanks to a new study from the University of Cambridge (United Kingdom), the first biomarker – a biological signal – of depression has been identified, that is, a physical test that will facilitate the diagnosis of those with depression. The key is in the saliva. A saliva test to measure the levels of a hormone , cortisol, is sufficient to determine whether an individual is prone to depression . The conclusions of the study have been published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).
To arrive at this biological marker, the researchers conducted a study with 1,858 adolescents, divided into two study blocks: 660 adolescents in the first, and 1,198 adolescents in the second. Each block of adolescents was divided into groups according to their potential depression symptoms and their saliva cortisol levels, from low to high. The results of the two studies were identical and extremely revealing: in the fourth group, the one with adolescents with a higher level of cortisol in their saliva, it was concluded that young people were seven times more prone to clinical depression than those in group 1.
This finding represents a great advance in early diagnosis, especially for the most fragile sector and more difficult to detect, such as children, since it will allow to identify quickly and without room for errors, children with greater risk of suffering this metal disorder.
