First biomarker could help boys at risk of major depression

By Kate Kelland LONDON (Reuters) – British brain scientists have identified the first biomarker, or biological signpost, for clinical depression and say it could help find boys in particular who are at risk of developing the debilitating mental illness. In a study in the Proceedings of the National Academies of Science (PNAS) journal, the team found that teenage boys who have a combination of depressive symptoms and raised levels of the stress hormone cortisol are up to 14 times more likely to develop major depression than those who show neither trait. “We’re very bad about looking after our mental health, and yet the problems of mental health are extremely common,” said Barbara Sahakian, a Cambridge University professor of Clinical neuropsychology who worked on the study. “(And) we now have a very real way of identifying those teenage boys most likely to develop clinical depression.” He said armed with such knowledge, doctors and other carers could target prevention strategies at depression-vulnerable boys and “hopefully help reduce their risk of serious episodes of depression and their consequences in adult life”.