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Already available in Italy, the test is not currently reimbursed by Social Security and costs €899.
HEALTH – A blood test to differentiate between depression and bipolar disorder. This is what myEDIT-B offers, a blood test which is marketed in France from this Monday, April 1st. It would make it possible – with 80% reliability according to the laboratory – to know whether the patient has bipolarity or not.
Because one of the difficulties of this psychological disorder, in which patients alternate between depressive phase and manic phase, is that it is often confused with depression. Depressive phases are often more strongly marked than manic phases.
Consequence: patients take on average eight to ten years to be correctly diagnosed. According to one survey conducted in 2023 by the Bipolarité France association, “20% of respondents had the diagnosis confirmed more than 15 years after the appearance of the first symptoms”. Knowing that in the meantime, taking antidepressants can make the disease worse.
This test, developed by researchers from Alcediag, a French biopharmaceutical company based in Hérault, should make it possible to significantly reduce these wandering times. It initially targets adults treated with medication for a moderate or severe depressive episode.
Prescription by a psychiatrist
Prescribed by a psychiatrist, the blood test must be carried out in one of the 400 Synlab brand laboratories. The results are sent within one month to the doctor who makes the final diagnosis. “The doctor’s prescription must necessarily be accompanied by a clinical information sheet signed by the doctor and a consent form to the conditions of use of the test, signed by the patient”specified Synlab in a communicated.
How is the disease detected? MyEDIT-B “is based on sequencing of RNA in the blood, coupled with an algorithm based on artificial intelligence”, explains the lab. It allows the identification of blood biomarkers corresponding to the disease. “ The myEDIT-B algorithm also takes into account multifactorial data: age, sex, treatments and addictions”he explains.
Already available in Italy, the test is not currently reimbursed by Social Security and costs €899. “We have ten years of investment on our own funds, justifies Alexandra Prieux, president of Alcediag, near 20 minutes. The development of this test was very expensive. We used the latest sequencing technologies”. A clinical utility study, which will last three years, is underway to measure the impact of the test on the progression of the disease.
This test could improve the speed of treatment of these patients, who can suffer for years due to lack of diagnosis of social isolation, academic or professional difficulties, addictions, dangerous behavior (sexual, financial, etc.), sleep disorders… And go so far as to attempt suicide for half of them.
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