Can a depression be detected by a blood test? I need to help a friend.?

Let me prove you wrong. I was told in a hospital when I was with my niece that she has to do a blood test to detect is she has depression or not. I just wanted to be sure how true is it: I found out that In 50 to 60 per cent of cases, an unusual blood test known as the Dexamethasone Suppression test can measure the presence and severity of depressive illness.

Sapphire... LOLLLL No. what are they going to find in the blood? Little red-blood cells with sad faces? come on now...


That was good LOL

no. it's diagnosed by your symptoms. your friend needs to go get some help.

what were you going to do? draw blood without them knowing? YOU can't make anyone do anything that the friend doesn't want to do. tell them that you are concerned. hopefully, he/she will listen.

No. what are they going to find in the blood? Little red-blood cells with sad faces? come on now...

No, it can't. Diagnosing depression is done by a clinical diagnosis. Which means talking to a professional who can listen to what is going on in your friend's life and see if there are enough symptoms that match up to a diagnosis of depression.

Depression has some very clear indicators. Once you get familiar with all the symptoms, it becomes quite easy to spot.

You're very kind to help your friend. Keep it up.

no it is something mental in a persons mind.. so it cannot be detected by the blood. When your friend goes to the dr he will give him a test by asking a few questions this is how he will know if his depression requires medicine or not :)

edit: well I have never heard of this and to be honest with you alot of ppl in my family suffer from clinical depression even manic and bipolar.. so maybe this is something new:) I hope it helps your niece :)

edit: here is some info on the information the dr gave you...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dexamethaso... ...it really doesnt say it is for depression.. here is another link also..
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Can_a_serotoni...

basically your niece will know if she is depressed or not if the dr says she is depressed and she is not then i would not take the meds if I did not feel depressed :)

NOPE...depression can only be detected by the way the person behaves...usually depression is caused by chemical imbalance in the brain or some hormonal disfunctioning but it was proved that sometimes depression is caused by change in lighting (sun goes away most of the day in winter so pple get depressed) and some foods cause depression and some others release endorfants that help the brain deal with the chemical imbalance that causes depression.

In some cases depression was linked to hereditary hypertension (high blood pressure) and also linked to food allergies (which could be detected in specific blood tests).

It's already been said that depression is a state of mind ...some forms are chemically induced , others can be as a result of personal behaviour & circumstances.

Your friend needs professional help & it may mean trialling different drug therapies until the right one is found ....
Unfortunately , depression is one of the scourges of our time ....strange isn't it when you consider we supposedly live in the most affluent & enlightened age ever !

Do your friend a favour & insist that he/she gets professional help...

u need to help a friend by knowing if they are depressed or cz u know they are?
it's more of a mental psycholgical issue and not physical per say although the outcomes of it affect the body a lot. why not take some tests, oral tests from magazines about depression? do them in pairs and read about the depression and try to associate between what is said and what he has.. u can always refer to a Dr. and ask them if there's smth specific u wanna know about.. Good luck

Of course not
if you feel sad for more than a week and you cant sleep properly you are in a depression

Depression is a word that acts as an umbrella for many mental health issues from the mild " I'm feeling down these days" to clinical depression, anxiety disorders, bipolar or even schizophrenia.

For a trained professional, it is very easy to detect a person's mental health with just a few questions and description of symptoms.

Urge your friend to seek professional advice, it might be a scary prospect at first because of the stigma society attach to therapy but I have seen first hand people's lives turn around for the best with a little help.

who in the world think this way!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Never, you can get tumor markers by a blood test.

Depression can be detected for instance by the Beck depression inventory.

Okay, dear, I read into the papers. Thats money for the pathology machinery, who have their interest in that matter.

Depression is still primarily defined by symptoms in psyche.