PMID: 25733956Mar 4, 2015Paper

Intermediate phenotypes and biomarkers of treatment outcome in major depressive disorder

Dialogues in Clinical Neuroscience
Andrew F LeuchterIan A Cook

Abstract

Major depressive disorder (MDD) is a pleomorphic illness originating from gene x environment interactions. Patients with differing symptom phenotypes receive the same diagnosis and similar treatment recommendations without regard to genomics, brain structure or function, or other physiologic or psychosocial factors. Using this present approach, only one third of patients enter remission with the first medication prescribed, and patients may take longer than 1 year to enter remission with repeated trials. Research to improve treatment effectiveness recently has focused on identification of intermediate phenotypes (IPs) that could parse the heterogeneous population of patients with MDD into subgroups with more homogeneous responses to treatment. Such IPs could be used to develop biomarkers that could be applied clinically to match patients with the treatment that would be most likely to lead to remission. Putative biomarkers include genetic polymorphisms, RNA and protein expression (transcriptome and proteome), neurotransmitter levels (metabolome), additional measures of signaling cascades, oscillatory synchrony, neuronal circuits and neural pathways (connectome), along with other possible physiologic measures. All of these measu...Continue Reading

Related Concepts

Related Feeds

Bipolar Disorder

Bipolar disorder is characterized by manic and/or depressive episodes and associated with uncommon shifts in mood, activity levels, and energy. Discover the latest research this illness here.

Related Papers

Journal of Psychosomatic Research
Mustafa M HusainMaurizio Fava
Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica. Supplementum
H-J Möller, R Bottlender
Current Topics in Behavioral Neurosciences
Patricia A ZunszainCarmine M Pariante
© 2022 Meta ULC. All rights reserved