Around 40% of people diagnosed with depression may actually have bipolar disorder. What if a simple blood test could provide a diagnosis? This is what “myEDIT-B”, a blood test marketed since Monday 1, promiseser April in France which determines whether the patient suffers from bipolarity, with a reliability estimated at 80%.
Bipolarity affects 1.6 million people in France. One of the difficulties linked to the management of these psychological disorders lies in the diagnosis, often confused with depression. In fact, patients alternate between depressive phase and euphoric or manic phase, the depressive phases often being more strongly marked. Therefore, patients take on average 8 to 10 years to be correctly diagnosed, knowing that during this time, the possible use of antidepressants can worsen the disease.
Fight against medical wandering
The medical wandering that results from these diagnostic delays has significant consequences on the well-being of patients and those around them. Faced with this observation, researchers from the Alcediag pharmaceutical laboratory have developed an innovative diagnostic test, based on a blood test coupled with an algorithm based on artificial intelligence. Indeed, in bipolar people, there are variations in the activity of certain genes, called epigenetic modifications, visible during blood RNA sequencing. Thus, a blood test makes it possible, in 80% of cases, to identify these specific biomarkers, also taking into account multifactorial data such as age, sex, treatments and addictions.
This test, called myEDIT-B, must be prescribed on prescription by a psychiatrist, and carried out in one of the 400 Synlab brand laboratories, before the final diagnosis made by the doctor. Despite its high cost – 899 euros and not reimbursed – it is an advantageous solution in mattermatter of speedspeed patient care. A news clinical studyclinical study must be carried out over the next three years, in order to measure the impact of the test on the progression of the disease, and possibly decide on possible coverage by Social Security. For the moment, it targets adults treated with medication for a moderate or severe depressive episode.
