UAB Doctor Developing Blood Test to Predict Depression
Beth Seibels of Birmingham is 62 years old and has suffered from anxiety and depression for more than 30 years. Two years ago, things got worse. For the first time, she was feeling suicidal.
“I was dying inside,” Seibels says. “You don’t see the other side. You believe that it’s going to be this way forever, and it causes such a hopelessness that you will never get your life back again.”
Seibels had seen countless counselors and psychiatrists and tried numerous different medications. Desperate, she even tried transcranial magnetic brain stimulation. Nothing was helping.
It wasn’t until Beth met psychiatrist Dr. Richard Shelton that her condition significantly improved.
Methods of screening for depression vary widely and most lab tests aren’t helpful. Patient interviews remain the most widely used tool a doctor has at his or her disposal. Many people go undiagnosed. But what if you could find out if you were at risk of becoming depressed or suicidal? Researchers at the University of Alabama at Birmingham are working to do just that.
As the mother of three grown children and nine grandchildren, Seibels worries that they could become victim to this devastating illness.
According to Shelton, who heads the newly formed Mood Disorders Research Center at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, that’s a common concern among patients. It’s something he and his counterpart, neurobiologist Yogesh Dwivedi, are trying to address. Using predictive analytics, they are working to develop a blood test that can detect risk with the ultimate goal of identifying people before they become depressed or even suicidal.
While common for other types of medical conditions, this has rarely, if ever, been done for a mental health malady. Shelton says it’s achievable and that early detection can save lives.
UAB
Dr. Richard Shelton.
“Once people are sick, it’s often hard to get them well again. And that’s true in cancer. That’s true in depression. That’s true for suicide,” says Shelton.
A blood test for depression already exists, but it can identify someone who’s already depressed. Similar to other medical conditions that use predictive analytics, Shelton’s plan is to refine and perfect the test.
“The work we are doing in the lab here – a blood test that we hope will ultimately help us to develop a way to detect who’s going to become depressed, and people who are going to become depressed who are likely to be suicidal in the future — it’s a big project,” says Shelton. “It involves a lot of complicated chemical analysis, but that’s really the long-term goal.”
The challenge he faces in the lab are thousands of tiny RNA sequences known as MicroRNAs – crucial players in gene expression and protein production. MicroRNAs can actually keep genes from expressing themselves, determining whether a particular protein will be produced. There are literally thousands of these MicroRNAs, and they are extremely sensitive to environmental effects. Shelton wants to understand how such factors, child abuse, chronic stress, death of a loved one, long-term changes in MicroRNAs.
Specifically, he wants to identify the smallest number of MicroRNAs that could be used to create a profile detectable in blood that can be extracted during a routine medical visit. This would ultimately allow clinicians to intervene before a patient becomes ill.
Longitudinal studies are currently underway. Shelton estimates developing the test could take as long as 30 years at his current funding level.
How Alabama Power kept bills up and opposition out to become one of the most powerful utilities in the country
In one of the poorest states in America, the local utility earns massive profits producing dirty energy with almost no pushback from state regulators.
No more Elmo? APT could cut ties with PBS
The board that oversees Alabama Public Television is considering disaffiliating from PBS, ending a 55-year relationship.
Nonprofit erases millions in medical debt across Gulf South, says it’s ‘Band-Aid’ for real issue
Undue Medical Debt has paid off more than $299 million in medical debts in Alabama. Now, the nonprofit warns that the issue could soon get worse.
Roy Wood Jr. on his father, his son and his new book
Actor, comedian and writer Roy Wood Jr. is out with a new book -- "The Man of Many Fathers: Life Lessons Disguised as a Memoir." He writes about his experience growing up in Birmingham, losing his dad as a teenager and all the lessons he learned from various father figures throughout his career.
Auburn fires coach Hugh Freeze following 12th loss in his last 15 SEC games
The 56-year-old Freeze failed to fix Auburn’s offensive issues in three years on the Plains, scoring 24 or fewer points in 17 of his 22 league games. He also ended up on the wrong end of too many close matchups, including twice this season thanks partly to questionable calls.
In a ‘disheartening’ era, the nation’s former top mining regulator speaks out
Joe Pizarchik, who led the federal Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement from 2009 to 2017, says Alabama’s move in the wake of a fatal 2024 home explosion increases risks to residents living atop “gassy” coal mines.
