What tests to take if you have depression
Miscellaneous / / June 22, 2022
They will help the doctor to distinguish depression from other diseases and prescribe the necessary treatment.
How depression manifests itself
suspectDepression (major depressive disorder) / Mayo Clinic You can have depression for a number of characteristic signs. Things are bad if you have most of the day and almost every day:
- feelings of sadness, emptiness and hopelessness;
- outbursts of anger, irritability or frustration even over small things;
- loss of interest in activities you used to enjoy, such as sex, hobbies, or sports
- sleep problems - insomnia or, conversely, a constant desire to sleep;
- inexplicable fatigue: performing even non-labor-intensive tasks requires a lot of effort;
- decreased appetite and weight loss or increased food cravings and weight gain;
- restlessness and agitation;
- slow thinking, speech, or body movements;
- feelings of worthlessness or guilt, obsession with past failures, self-flagellation;
- problems with thinking, concentrating, making decisions, and remembering things;
- recurring thoughts of death, suicide, or attempts to commit suicide;
- unexplained physical problems such as back pain or headaches.
What to do if you think you are depressed
See a psychiatrist right away. Depression is not a blues that will pass by itself, and not a weakness.
Depression is as much a medical diagnosis as a fracture, heart attack, or diabetes. It can also be life threatening.
Doctor putdepression workup. Laboratory Studies to Rule Out Organic Causes / Medscape diagnosis after talking with the patient. There are no special laboratory tests that could determine a person's depression.
But sometimes the psychiatrist still prescribes some tests. For example, to exclude a disease that can manifest itself as depression, or to decide on a treatment plan.
What indicators can be measured
These tests should only be prescribed by a doctor.
Do not try to treat depression on your own - it is a deadly disease. You will not only spend money on unnecessary research, but also increase the risks to life and health.
The level of hemoglobin, hematocrit, the number, size and color index of erythrocytes
Iron-deficiency anemia causesAnemia / Mayo Clinic weakness and fatigue, and affectsJ. Kim, M. Wessling-Resnick. Iron and Mechanisms of Emotional Behavior / The Journal of nutritional biochemistry to an emotional state. To exclude this cause, it is necessary to make a clinical blood analysis.
Attention payAnemia / Mayo Clinic hemoglobin (an iron-containing protein in red blood cells that binds blood gases), hematocrit (content of formed elements), as well as the characteristics of erythrocytes: the number, size and "coloration". In people with anemia, all of these indicators will be reduced.
Thyroid-stimulating hormone and thyroid hormones
One of the symptoms hypothyroidismisHypothyroidism (underactive thyroid) / Mayo Clinic depression, so it may be enough to normalize the level of thyroid hormones so that the “clouds dissipate”.
To do this, you need to find out the concentration of thyroid-stimulating hormone (the pituitary hormone that regulates the activity of the thyroid gland) and sometimes thyroxine.
Vitamin B12
Deficiency in B vitamins such as B6, folic acid and especially B12, maybe callVitamin B-12 and depression: Are they related? / Mayo Clinic symptoms of depression. It is more common in vegetarians, the elderly, patients with celiac disease, or Crohn's disease.
If you suspect a lack of vitamin B12 the doctor can send for an appropriate analysis and, if the assumptions are confirmed, will recommend an additional intake of the vitamin.
Just don't prescribe your own medications. Role B12 in depression is unclear, and no vitamins can replace antidepressants and psychological counseling.
Vitamin D
It's believed that there isv. Menon, S. K. Kar, N. Suthar, N. Nebhinani. Vitamin D and Depression: A Critical Appraisal of the Evidence and Future Directions / Indian journal of psychological medicine association between depression symptoms and deficiency vitamin D. And many people really do not have enough of it, because most of the year the sun is not enough to produce it in the body.
Therefore, they prescribe tests, and sometimes an additional appointment. vitamin D, but only as an addition to the main treatment.
Reaction to dexamethasone
The dexamethasone test is usually done to defineDexamethasone suppression tests / UpToDate dysfunction of the adrenal cortex. But it turned out that it also helps distinguishP E Hayes, P Ettigi. Dexamethasone suppression test in diagnosis of depressive illness / Clinical pharmacy from other disorders, endogenous depression caused by an internal imbalance of biologically active substances.
Carbohydrate-deficient transferrin (CDT)
Alcohol abuse closely relatedD. M. Ferguson, J. M. Boden, L. J. Horwood. Tests of Causal Links Between Alcohol Abuse or Dependence and Major Depression / Archives Of General Psychiatry with the development of depression. A person may unconsciously remain silent about this, for example, because he does not consider it a problem. Therefore, the doctor may recommend testing for carbohydrate-deficient transferrin.
Transferrin is a protein that carries iron in the blood. When taking blood alcohol appearDetermination of the transferrin fraction (CDT) (diagnosis of alcohol abuse) / Helix its unusual shape. Accordingly, this analysis may indicate alcoholism.
Toxicological analysis of blood and urine
Some poisons in chronic poisoning cause neurological symptoms, including depression. This can happen, for example, due to toxinsJ. Wang, b. Cao X. Yang, J. Wu L. L. Chan, Y. Li. Chronic ciguatoxin poisoning causes emotional and cognitive dysfunctions in rats / fish, pesticidesL. Stallones, C. Beseler. Pesticide poisoning and depressive symptoms among farm residents / Annals of epidemiology, carbon monoxideCarbon monoxide poisoning / NHS, heavy metalsH. Lahouaoui A. Aimrane, C. Doukkali, Y. Khamsy, N. Zouhairi H. Benammi, M. A. el Hidan, A. Draoui, A. Hassan, b. Abdellah. Depression and Anxiety Emerging From Heavy Metals: What Relationship? /.
sex hormones
Sometimes a doctor will need to know the hormonal status of a person in order to determine the causes of depression or the tactics of examination and treatment.
women more exposedC. N. Soares, b. Zitek. Reproductive hormone sensitivity and risk for depression across the female life cycle: A continuum of vulnerability? / Journal of psychiatry & neuroscience development of depressive disorder than men. This may be due to changes in the levels of sex hormones (estrogen, progesterone and others) throughout life.
And the point is not in the direct dependence of mood on the concentration of any one hormone, but rather in the chaotic fluctuations of all of them. For example, in different phases of the menstrual cycle, during pregnancy, childbirth, feeding and menopause.
But on that causesA. Walter, J. Breidenstein, R. Miller. Association of Testosterone Treatment With Alleviation of Depressive Symptoms in Men A Systematic Review and Meta‑analysis / JAMA Psychiatry Whether a decrease in testosterone in men is a symptom of depression, there is no consensus. But there is evidence that hormone therapy has sometimes improved symptoms of treatment-resistant depression in some groups of patients: middle-aged men, HIV-infected, patients with mild depressive disorder and others.
Liver enzymes (ALT, AST)
Liver enzymes - alanine aminotransferase (ALT) and aspartate aminotransferase (AST) - indicate the state of the organ and the progression of the disease.
In patients with hepatic encephalopathy - brain damage due to impaired liver function - often meetD. D. Telles‑Correia, M. J. Freire, I. Mega, D. Barreiras, H. C. Pinto. Anxiety and depression symptoms in hepatic encephalopathy: are they psychiatric or organic? / Transplant proceedings depression and other disorders.
Sometimes drugs to improve liver function in such people help more than antidepressants.
Precipitation microreaction (RPR)
Psychiatrists periodically encounter atypical symptoms of depression and other mental disorders. Sometimes it leads to untreated once upon a time syphilis.
Brain damage calledSyphilis / MSD Manuals neurosyphilis, its incubation period can make upL. L. Crozatti, M. H. de Brito, B. N. A. Lopes, F. P. F. de Campos. Atypical behavioral and psychiatric symptoms: Neurosyphilis should always be considered / Autopsy & case reports 2 to 20 years after infection. According to various reports, it causes psychiatric symptoms in 33-86% of patients, half of whom will have personality changes and hallucinations.
This is a fairly rare reason. But sometimes a doctor may order an RPR test for a patient with a strange course of depression.
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