Safety note: Blood Test for Depression

This article is educational and does not replace a conversation with a qualified professional who can ask follow-up questions, assess risk, and understand your individual situation. Reading it does not create a doctor-patient, therapist-client, or counsellor-client relationship. See the full website disclaimer.

Symptoms and diagnosis need clinical context

Blood tests may help rule out or identify medical contributors, but they do not replace a clinical assessment of mood, thinking, behaviour, sleep, risk, medication, substances, and functioning.

Symptom lists and articles can help you notice patterns and prepare better questions, but they cannot diagnose you. Trusted clinical sources describe diagnosis as a process that may include history, current symptoms, mental-health assessment, physical health, medication and substance review, possible tests to rule out medical causes, and judgement about severity, duration, impairment, and safety.

If safety may be at risk

If you or someone else may be in immediate danger, may harm themselves or someone else, or feels unable to stay safe, use emergency help now. In Ireland call 112 or 999, or go to the nearest Emergency Department. Outside Ireland, use your local emergency number.

While psychiatric diagnoses are usually something that is made within a clinical interview by an experienced clinician, there have been new developments in the area of biological diagnostics. These new biological tests may not replace a clinical interview anytime in the near future, they could be an important marker for the refinement of diagnosis and treatment.

The following article provides some background information and new trends:

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41380-021-01061-w

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