Comprehensive phenotyping of depression disease trajectory and risk: Rationale and design of Texas Resilience Against Depression study (T-RAD)

Publication date: Available online 10 December 2019Source: Journal of Psychiatric ResearchAuthor(s): Madhukar H. Trivedi, Cherise Chin Fatt, Manish K. Jha, Crystal M. Cooper, Joseph M. Trombello, Brittany L. Mason, Jennifer Hughes, Bharathi S. Gadad, Andrew H. Czysz, Russell T. Toll, Anne K. Fuller, Sangita Sethuram, Taryn L. Mayes, Abu Minhajuddin, Thomas Carmody, Tracy L. GreerAbstract:Depression has a chronic and recurrent course often with early onset and is the leading cause of disability worldwide. In contrast to diagnoses for other conditions which rely on precise medical tests, the diagnosis of depression still focuses exclusively on symptom reports. As a result, heterogeneous patient groups are included under broad categories. Furthermore, in the absence of companion diagnostic tests, choosing specific treatments for patients remains imprecise with only one-third of patients enter remission with initial treatment, with others requiring multiple intervention steps to achieve remission. In addition to improving treatment outcomes, disease prevention is essential to reduce overall disease burden. Adolescence is a critical window where complex emotional, social, familial, and biological shifts may predispose to lifelong depression. Thus, personalized medicine, integrating individual variability in genes, brain function and clinical phenotypes, can offer a comprehensive approach to provide precise diagnosis, novel drug development, optimal treatment assignment, and preven...
Source: Journal of Psychiatric Research - Category: Psychiatry Source Type: research