Advances in psychiatric applications of precision medicine offer healthcare leaders new opportunities to predict and treat mental health problems
Researchers from Van Andel Institute (VAI) and Pine Rest Christian Mental Health Services have developed a set of biomarkers that can predict the development of severe depression during or after pregnancy with an 83% accuracy. This new research will support healthcare leaders who currently are forced to be reactive to pregnancy-related depression, responding only after symptoms begin to occur.
Pregnancy-related depression is a common complication of pregnancy, with almost one in five new mothers developing severe depression in the period leading up to or following birth. Current diagnosis of pregnancy-related depression occurs after symptoms develop, and clinicians are not able to reliably predict who will experience this complication.
“Depression isn’t just something that happens in the brain—its fingerprints are everywhere in the body, including in our blood,” said clinical psychiatrist and neural biologist Lena Brundin, MD, PhD, in a VAI press release. “The ability to predict pregnancy-related depression and its severity will be a game changer for protecting the health of mothers and their infants. Our findings are an important leap forward toward this goal.” Brundin is a VAI professor and co-senior author of the study.
The study, published in Translational Psychiatry, titled, “Cytokines and Tryptophan Metabolites Can Predict Depressive Symptoms in Pregnancy,” followed 114 women during their pregnancies. The participants provided blood samples and underwent evaluation for symptoms of depression during each trimester of their pregnancy and during the postpartum period. The researchers were then able to correlate changes in certain biomarkers with the onset and development of pregnancy-related depression.
Using Precision Medicine for Treatment-Resistant Depression
The VIA/Pine Rest study comes at a time when precision medicine developments in psychiatry are gaining more notoriety. Another example is a study out of the University of California San Francisco (UCSF) of a personalized, on-demand method for treating patients with depression who do not respond well to treatments.
The UCSF research, published in Nature Medicine, title, “Closed-loop Neuromodulation in An Individual with Treatment-Resistant Depression,” was a proof-of-concept study that successfully treated a single patient. The researchers used a symptom-specific biomarker that identified locations where electrical activity in the brain could be improved. They then implanted a device that sensed the patient’s brain activity and applied brain stimulation that matched the intensity of the underlying activity. The improvement was almost immediate and continued to last during the 15 months the patient was studied.
“This study points the way to a new paradigm that is desperately needed in psychiatry,” UCSF professor of psychiatry and neurology Andrew Krystal, PhD, told Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology News. “We’ve developed a precision-medicine approach that has successfully managed our patient’s treatment-resistant depression by identifying and modulating the circuit in her brain that’s uniquely associated with her symptoms.” Krystal is a member of the UCSF Weill Institute for Neurosciences and the senior author of the UCSF study.
These two studies demonstrate emerging precision medicine technologies in the psychiatric field that offer game-changing, personalized treatments. Innovative healthcare providers who adopt mental health precision medicine technologies early may be better equipped to predict potential problems, offer effective, personalized treatments, and improve outcomes for their patients.
—Caleb Williams
Related Information:
Blood Markers Can Predict Depression in Pregnancy
Cytokines and Tryptophan Metabolites Can Predict Depressive Symptoms in Pregnancy
Closed-loop Neuromodulation in An Individual with Treatment-Resistant Depression
Depression Biomarker Enables Precision Therapy in Landmark Study