Posted by zeugma on September 14, 2004, at 11:32:39
In reply to Re: where are the diagnostic tests?!!, posted by SLS on September 14, 2004, at 10:01:47
> > Just ranting.
> >
> > If psych meds impact specific brain dysfunctions, where are the tests that identify which patients will respond to which meds? We've got DNA, EEG, MRI, PET, CSF, etc etc, *and* paper-&-pencil tests galore. Why doesn't the medical world have an idea which antidepressant will benefit which patient?
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> That's a great question that is continually asked of the medical community. I think there might already be enough information available to take advantage of these tests, but I don't see that an effort is being made to focus on compiling this data to ferret out associations between test results and treatment modality.
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> - ScottPart of the reason there is little effort is, paradoxically, that AD's have become such big business. Each pharmaceutical company wants their new drug to treat *all* depression, not just one possibly rare subtype of it. There was more incentive for pharmaceutical companies to look for a niche for their product when the market was seen as relatively small to begin with. Greed is the driving force behind a great deal of research and it is not leading to better treatments IMO, especially for depression, which has always been a heterogeneous disorder in presentation.
-z
poster:zeugma
thread:390599
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20040909/msgs/390655.html