Biomarkers and the Future of Treatment for Depression

Doctors have a variety of drug options for treatment of depression. But there is currently no way to determine which antidepressant will work best for a given patient, which means that many people continue to suffer while their doctors try a series of medications. As Marisa Toups and Madhukar H. Trivedi write, however, many researchers have focused their efforts on developing biomarkers for depression—tests for aspects of a patient’s physiology that can predict a clinical outcome. In the future, doctors may be able to screen patients to determine which treatment options will work for them, reducing the time a patient must continue to live with the effects of depression.