To detect bipolar disorder, a blood test has been available in France since April 1

Health – Blood test to differentiate between depression and bipolar disorder. This is what myEDIT-B offers, a blood test that has been marketed in France since this Monday, April 1st. It will make it possible – with 80% reliability according to the laboratory – to know whether the patient is bipolar or not.

Because one of the difficulties of this psychological disorder, in which patients alternate between depressive phases and manic phases, it is often confused with depression. Depressive phases are often more strongly marked than manic phases.

The result: It takes an average of eight to ten years for patients to be properly diagnosed. According to a survey conducted in 2023 by the Bipolarit France Association, “20% of respondents confirmed the diagnosis more than 15 years after the appearance of the first symptoms”. Knowing that in the meantime, taking antidepressants can make the disease worse.

The test, developed by researchers at Alcediag, a French biopharmaceutical company based in Hérault, should make it possible to significantly reduce this wandering time. It targets adults initially treated with medication for moderate or severe depressive episodes.

Prescription by a psychiatrist

Prescribed by a psychiatrist, the blood test must be done at one of the 400 SynLab brand laboratories. The results are sent to the doctor within a month who makes the final diagnosis. “The doctor’s prescription must be accompanied by a clinical information sheet signed by the doctor and a consent form for the conditions of use of the test signed by the patient”Synlab said in a press release.

How is the disease recognized? MyEDIT-B “Based on the sequence of RNA in blood, combined with an algorithm based on artificial intelligence”,

Lab explains. It allows the identification of blood biomarkers corresponding to the disease. “ The myEDIT-B algorithm also considers multifactorial data: age, gender, treatment and addiction”That explains.

Already available in Italy, the test is currently not reimbursed by social security and costs €899. “We have a ten-year investment on our own funds, Justifies Alexandra Prex, president of Alcediag 20 minutes. The development of this test was very expensive. We used the latest sequencing techniques”. A clinical utility study, which will last three years, is underway to measure the test’s impact on disease progression.

This test can improve the speed of treatment of these patients, who suffer for years due to lack of diagnosis of social isolation, academic or professional difficulties, addictions, dangerous behavior (sexual, financial, etc.), sleep disorders. As long as half of them try to commit suicide.

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