Doctors Develop New Blood Test For Depression

Japanese researchers have developed a blood test that can detect if a person has depression within minutes, before they ever see a psychologist. Previous research found there’s a link between depression and phosphoric acid levels in the blood. Doctors were able to diagnose depressed patients with an 82% success rate, and the new method is much faster than previous blood tests for the condition, which relied on DNA analysis of white blood cells. The doctors hope to make the test available in the next two years, and say it could improve early detection.

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