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Today, on the Bipolar Burble Facebook page, someone posted a link to an article on The Health Magazine (a website) that had the headline: A Urine Test Can Distinguish Between Bipolar Disorder And Depression. The poster bought into this headline and felt that “people should know about this.”
Well, I can tell you that when someone claims to have found a urine test to distinguish between bipolar and depression, you should be very skeptical. Believe me, if this were a real thing, it wouldn’t just show up in some clickbait website, written by someone named “admin.” (Normally, these types of sites even steal the content they do have.)
Let’s look at the facts of the matter. Does a urine test to differentiate between depression and bipolar disorder really exist?
Many biomarkers in urine have been studied and have been found not to be able to properly distinguish between disorders. That said, it is thought that the right combination of biomarkers could be useful.
In the study referred to in the above article, 76 people with major depressive disorder and 43 people with bipolar disorder were used to identify different metabolites. Twenty different metabolites were identified that may be different those with bipolar versus those with depression.
Now, this is a very small group of people. Not only that but they have all been treated at the same hospital and were of the same ethnicity. This is the definition of a biased sample.
But let’s continue.
In blind trial (only) 50 people with major depressive disorder and 28 people with bipolar disorder were tested and their disorder was assigned based on the above metabolites. The results were not promising. The test could only identify 76% of those with major depressive disorder and 79% of those with bipolar disorder.
Let’s be clear: these numbers are not clinically significant. Remember, you have a 50% chance whether you look at metabolites or not. And even if these numbers were clinically significant, a much, much larger sample size would need to be used to show that anything useful could result from it.
All that said, researchers did further analysis of the data and found six metabolites that may be more promising. When they were used (in a data analysis, not a blind test) they had a 90% reliability in distinguishing between bipolar and depression. This is promising but is far, far from anything that resembles an actual test.
No, it doesn’t. A few years ago, someone claimed to have a blood test for schizophrenia, and it wasn’t real either and has since been discontinued..
Don’t believe headlines like this. Please, please read the whole piece critically, and if that doesn’t clarify things for you then go to the actual study because if you did, you would see that the final line of the study abstract was,
The identified urinary biomarkers can aid in the future development of an objective laboratory-based diagnostic test for distinguishing BD from MDD patients.
In other words, this is a tiny bit of groundwork that has been laid to possibly develop a test in the future.
And that’s where we are in most of the science of mental illness, in general. We’re in a place where there are certain theories that look promising but we really don’t know if, in fact, they are correct.
Remember, there are no easy bipolar/depression diagnostic tools right now. If there were, I would happily share them with you.
Chen et al, Divergent Urinary Metabolic Phenotypes between Major Depressive Disorder and Bipolar Disorder Identified by a Combined GC-MS and NMR Spectroscopic Metabonomic Approach. 2015.
The Health Magazine, A Urine Test Can Distinguish Between Bipolar Disorder And Depression. Retrieved July 31, 2016.
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Natasha Tracy is an award-winning writer, speaker, advocate, and consultant from the Pacific Northwest. She has been living with bipolar disorder for 26 years and has written more than 2000 articles on the subject.
Find more of Natasha’s work in her acclaimed book: "Lost Marbles: Insights into My Life with Depression & Bipolar" on Amazon.
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I read an article on cnn (http://www.cnn.com/2016/09/26/health/blood-test-depression-treatment-antidepressants/) the other day about a blood test that could potentially lead to a way to tailor treatments in depression patients, including which drugs might work better. It does so through looking at the levels of inflammation markers in the blood.
I’m curious what you think, and whether this is something that could potentially be used in finding better treatments for bipolar as well. (Admittedly, I know less about bipolar than depression since I have depression and anxiety, but I am interested in learning more.)
Well,it sounds odd
I never take these things too seriously realizing there online
Hence,did Oxford or Harvard get involved?
No.
Ok,until I’m hearing real serious buzz meaning actual articles from unis or telly show breakthrough because
It will be HUGE
IM NOT BUYING INTO IT
I remain a serious skeptic …..although it would great if it were truthful…..
That’s how problems online develop
One person posts something …then what I call the snowball effect happens
Even badly where peeps argue hrs on end just to be heard.
I HEAR YOU
In case anyone has issues with what I’ve said.
Which I believe shows no offence to anyone…..I’m not the type now ( still doing well on LATUDA) to keep having rows online or otherwise…..I get this person who sent this article signing admin.
Was only trying to help…
But we all come from different homes,share different values & beliefs/our intellectual levels differ.
Which also effect how we look at how we respond when we post or comment.
There’s no right or wrong
No one should ever critize someone for a comment unless it’s abusive ….or threatening.
Back on point,
Maybe one day that test will come.
But speaking as a resident living in Ontario Canada,the budget cuts for MI are outrageous…..
Really,they keep cutting back more / more…
But,who knows….it took me YRS to find a psych & it won’t be a forever thing…..
That’s how it is here….I’m simply fourtunate…
But it took also …..maybe 4 yrs to find the right combo of drugs to help me & also understand there’s no quick fix
I had to learn patience,which everyday I must practice….Hard!!!’
Maybe they could find a blood test as well,or both to diagnose bipolar….anyway,if they start asking questions
Plus the particular Dr is specialized in this field ( as mine fourtunately is) they seem to just get you”
Without a lot of extreme question essay thing & lab rat routine…..
For me,that was my miracle.
Those sites have been a HUGE problem this year. Most their articles are years old literally copy and pasted from legit sites. There are about a dozen or more URLS all feeding the same articles under different health news site labels. Its all the same website just under different skins.
The biggest give away is when you go to their main menu there is no company information at all it doesnt have articles of a single topic but rather hundreds of articles on various high interest medical conditions and all sensationalist ‘break through’ headlines. Its pure click bait. Unfortunately some groups i wouldve once considered reputable havent cottoned on to what these sites are and the URL of the month changes once facebook recognises it as spam.
I fell for it a few times in the first momth they started spamming page walls. Was about 18 months ago now.
But admittedly i was tired and burned out dealing with 4 separate crisis at the time. So i try to forgive myself.
Once in blue moon people genuinely fall for it and post it to other pages. The vast majority of the time they are just spam bots hitting the wall, post comments and inbox.
More the pity they ran a fake award for the pages who share their plagiarised articles and so those pages started posting more of them…..as tired as i am it means I’m having to try doubly hard to stay alert enough to stick with original sources.
Majority of formerly good stuff even that I liked on utube now pure drama”
Clickbait all about famewhoring & $$$$$$$$&
Sad some of my fave people I’ve unsub bed too due to the 15 mins of fame train….
That’s the Internet
Not only health info…some seriously DANGEROUS INFO I’d never do if I WAS PAID
Some well,interesting world we live in,huh?
The BLIZZARD OF THE INTERNET……go down the rabbit hole!!!