Diagnosing mental health as routinely as blood work could revolutionize treatment

Imagine that tomorrow you wake up with a persistent cough and a sore throat. You go to see your doctor and she asks about your symptoms, but also takes your temperature and blood pressure, and maybe takes a throat culture or blood sample to send to the lab. Most of the medical field operates in this way, but not mental health.

Recent work by our lab is trying to change this. We're looking for "biomarkers," physical tests that could help in the diagnosis of particular mental illnesses and help to inform treatment strategies. The goal of these tests is not to replace people's self-report about how they are feeling, but to rather to provide additional information to have a more complete picture of what is going on when someone has a mental illness (or is at risk for developing one).