New Blood Test to Detect Depression in Teens

Blood tests have long been the diagnostic normal for diagnosing diseases among young people, such as mono and diabetes. Now, researchers have developed a blood test to diagnose depression in adolescents, a step they hope will guide to a improved way to identify the disorder in youth.

Presently, the diagnosis of depression depends completely on the willingness of the patient to report symptoms - and the ability of a physician to understand. For adolescents, the diagnosis is mostly difficult given the emotional ups and downs of adolescence natural.

"Teenagers are very weak to depression," And there is no objective biological measures to assess for depression."

Experts have developed a test that looks for markers in the blood of adolescents with main depressive disorder. By studying rats that had genetic predispositions and environmental depression, the researchers were able to identify 26 markers of main depression.

They had the air of these markers in the blood of 28 teenagers man, aged 15 to 19, half and half without depression. They found that 11 markers showed in depressed adolescents, but not among adolescents without depression.

They were also able to decide different subtypes of depression, adolescents successfully identifying who suffered from depression and depression only in mixture with nervousness disorders.

The originality of this study is that we showed that it could be done. The technology is available to make this diagnosis,"

Experts say there is a great need to diagnose depression early in life, especially among adolescents.

According to the National Institute of Mental Health, 11 percent of 13 - to 18 years to develop major depression at some point in their adolescence. Reports of abuse and Mental Health Services Administration are somewhat lower - in 2008, 8.3 percent of 12 - to 17 years treated with depression.

Disorder puts teenagers at greater risk of health hazards, including material abuse, physical illness and suicide. In addition, when the depression begins early in life, the chances that it will continue and perhaps worsen in adulthood are great.