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Worthwhile blood tests for mental health problems

Middleway

Ex-Bluelighter
Joined
Apr 10, 2007
Messages
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Location
Melbourne
I have had lifelong problems with depression and anxiety and I want to get comprehensive blood work done to look for any underlying problems.

Can anyone suggests tests that are worthwhile (references would be good too, cheers)
 
I'm not sure about where to place this but it sounds interesting. I have been told I'm bipolar and ocd but is there a way to check that in the blood?
 
i had no idea one could be so diagnosed through simple blood analysis. i'll try to remember when i ask my doc tomorrow when i get my blood results (just getting a general checkup since it has been a few years).
 
i had no idea one could be so diagnosed through simple blood analysis. i'll try to remember when i ask my doc tomorrow when i get my blood results (just getting a general checkup since it has been a few years).

You can't, even if some values (like cortisol levels) have been liked to depression.
 
ah shit... i was in the waiting room telling myself over and over not to forget to ask, and i forgot. i guess i was stoked to get a perfect bill of health and get instructed to keep doing what i'm doing. =D

seriously, i think Josair is right. You need more than just blood tests to get to problematic brain chemistry. middleway, being in australia, just visit a gp who bulkbills and have a chat about it. it will cost you nothing and you'll get far better advice than in here.

good luck, mate.
 
Outside of a research setting blood tests in psychiatry are almost entirely about ruling out physical causes rather than about arriving at a diagnosis or determining a course of treatment.

Thyroid, testosterone(for males), vitamin D levels, as already mentioned might indicate a causal factor as far as mood disorder or psychotic symptoms.

Something harder to interpret is high homocysteine levels which are indicative of "methylation deficiency". Lots of journal articles about methylation and mental health, but most seem pretty academic and not oriented towards patients or clinicians given advice on what to do. Homocysteine tests were given more last decade because homocysteine is a marker for cardiovascular disease, when it was discovered that lowering homocysteine via b vitamins or other means did not decrease cardiac risk, the few practioners that did use homocysteine tests tended to give up on them. To what extent methylation deficiencies contribute to mood disorders and/or psychosis is at best a research topic- but I paid out of pocket for a homocysteine test as I might have altered diet and supplements in hopes of decreasing psychiatric symptoms if my results were high-but my results were normal rendering the question mute.

People have reported that uncovering and treating all sorts of problems resulted in a profound improvement of their psychiatric difficulties. Candida, food allergies, gluten intolerance/Celiacs, diabetes, hypoglycemia, environmental exposure to heavy metal or other toxins, latent spirochete infections like Lyme's or syphylis, on and on. In spite of all that I think its best to get a thorough physical and regular labs, then assuming nothing contradicts doing so-treat your psychiatric disorder as psychiatric. Which means accepting one's condition likely has a complex causality including both physical and psychological causes and isn't likely to show up in any obvious way in labs, MRI's, EEGs, etc

I think though if I really wanted a physically based diagnosis and treatment I would cough up the money to see someone who uses SPECT technology in a manner similar to how Dr Amen uses it- but brain imaging and interpretation is expensive- its for complicated situations or people who can not rest til they have exhausted every diagnostic means available to get to the bottom of their diagnosis. Usually a combination of anticipated expense, exhaustion, or results that are relatively OK cause people to accept a diagnosis. Pushing things further could have good results but the more levels one has pushed it beyond an ordinary practioner the less likely a special factor will be found that explains it all and renders it utterly treatable, imo. I understand the striving though, that's why I put out my two-bits.
 
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