Researchers at King's College London developed a blood test that can accurately predict whether a patient will respond to conventional antidepressants on the market.
The new test aims to help 50 percent of patients who don't respond to these common antidepressants and spend months struggling to find the right drug.
Taking into account a previous study showing that inflammation is associated with poor response of first-line antidepressants, researchers measured two biomarkers in the blood that indicate inflammation.
The researchers pinpointed the threshold at which these medicines stop working. They found that patients with blood inflammation above this threshold had a 100 percent likelihood of not responding to the antidepressants, while patients under the threshold were expected to respond to treatment.
With this information, unresponsive patients could be treated earlier with more targeted and assertive antidepressant treatment strategies.
While this is the first time a blood test has been shown to precisely predict a patient's response to antidepressants, researches say further research is necessary to compare the current clinical practice in prescribing drugs with an approach using their test.
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