23/01/2023
โ๐๐น๐ผ๐ผ๐ฑ ๐ง๐ฒ๐๐๐โ ๐๐ผ ๐๐ถ๐ฎ๐ด๐ป๐ผ๐๐ฒ ๐ ๐ฒ๐ป๐๐ฎ๐น ๐๐ฒ๐ฎ๐น๐๐ต ๐๐ผ๐ป๐ฑ๐ถ๐๐ถ๐ผ๐ป๐, ๐ฅ๐ฒ๐๐ฒ๐ฎ๐ฟ๐ฐ๐ต ๐๐น๐ฎ๐ถ๐บ๐
Almost a billion individuals worldwide are affected by mental health problems. Prevalent mental health conditions include anxiety disorders, depression, and bipolar disorders. In the Philippines, 1 in 10 Filipinos have suffered from moderate to severe depressive symptoms. Meanwhile, more than half a million Filipinos have been diagnosed with bipolar disorders, and constantly battling with alcohol-use disorder. Unfortunately, cultural taboos, shame, and stigmatization have caused these difficulties to be brushed aside over the years, resulting in an increasingly solitary and aggravated misery of the affected individuals.
The standard psychological diagnosis protocol utilizes the clientsโ self-reported description and narrative of their feeling and experiences, and practitionerโs behavioral observation. However, some clients have difficulty to expound and eloquently describe their symptoms, increasing the probability of misdiagnosis, and inaccurate treatment plan, as a result, a decelerating client improvement.
However, through scientific advancement and consistent efforts on spreading awareness and education regarding mental health have conveyed the issue into the societal spotlight โ expanding the attention it deserves. In 2021, researchers from Indiana University School of Medicine pioneered the study of the development of blood tests with a vision to generate an objective and precise tool in diagnosing mental health issues such as depression and bipolar disorders. Currently, the study is still in its early development phase.
The premise of the study posits that biological mood indicators can be discovered within the RNA biomarkers. Additionally, objectives of this groundbreaking study include determining the severity of depression, the probability of developing severe depression and bipolar disorder in the future, and aiding in providing patients with appropriate medications. Lastly, mental health and psychiatric practitioners explain that medications used to treat depression if given to patients with bipolar disorder can exacerbate their condition, hence objective and accurate diagnosis is required.
With this, this scientific breakthrough will bridge the existing gaps in the diagnostic processes, and pharmacological and psychological treatment plans.
- -
For more Mental Health Breakthroughs, considering following our page. Because, today, Mental Health Conditions is No Longer a Death Sentence. And, together let us break the stigma!
;
References:
Le-Niculescu, H., Roseberry, K., Gill, S. S., Levey, D. F., Phalen, P. L., Mullen, J., ... & Niculescu, A. B. (2021). Precision medicine for mood disorders: objective assessment, risk prediction, pharmacogenomics, and repurposed drugs. Molecular psychiatry, 26(7), 2776-2804.
Puyat, J. H., Gastardo-Conaco, M. C., Natividad, J., & Banal, M. A. (2021). Depressive symptoms among young adults in the Philippines: Results from a nationwide cross-sectional survey. Journal of Affective Disorders Reports, 3, 100073.
United Nations. Nearly one billion people have a mental disorder: WHO. Retrieved from https://news.un.org/en/story/2022/06/1120682
