PERSON ALISED TREATMENT FOR DEPRESSION ON THE HORIZON

摘要

When a patient seeks help for depression, the doctor plays a primitive guessing game. Although surrounded by state-of-the-art equipment, the doctor may touch only a keyboard to record the patient's symptoms and history before producing a prescription for an antidepressant. But it takes weeks to months to determine whether the drug really works. "It's kind of shocking how little we have to go on for a life-ruining disorder like depression," says Leanne Williams, a researcher in psychiatry and behavioural sciences at Stanford University, California. "In any other area of medicine, for a really chronic disease like this, you'd have other information."