Posted by bleauberry on January 11, 2009, at 14:46:01
In reply to Medical Tests for anxiety/depression/ADD/bipolar, posted by Garnet71 on January 10, 2009, at 19:01:27
While there are many dozens of biological causes of depression, many of which could be tested for, it would economically impossible to do all that testing. Here are the most important ones however, which in my opinion probably cover most of the bases:
Heavy metal urine challenge test: Take 12.5mg DMSA every 4 hours around the clock for 3 days, followed by a 1200mg dose, followed by collecting urine for the next 6 hours. If you have mercury and lead clogging your synapses, receptors, glands, and hormones, it will show up in this provoked urine. Several labs do this. Metals can also be tested in hair, but it is not reliable since metals embed themselves deep in cells. Hair would only show recent exposure. If you have or ever had silver fillings in your teeth, metals are strongly suspect as a cause of depression.
Cortisol 24 hour 4 sample saliva test. Spit into 4 different test tubes 4 times in a day. Your cortisol curve will tell a lot. The activity of your serotonin and norepinephrine is directly tied to what cortisol is doing. If found to be out of range, cortisol can be manipulated up or down to adjust. Do not underestimate the power of hormones, especially this one.
Thyroid TSH, freeT3, totalT4, and thyroid antibodies. The so-called normal range is actually much too broad, so look for numbers at least in the middle of the range, but preferably close to the "best" side of the range.
Lyme. Western Blot test is the most accurate, but yet no tests are completely accurate. This serious psychiatric disease is best diagnosed with a combination of lab tests and clinical symptoms judged by a doctor familiar with Lyme. It is estimated there are tens or even hundreds of thousands of undiagnosed cases, given other names such as depression, anxiety, schizophrenia, alzheimers, chronic fatigue, fibromylagia, MS, when in fact it is the "Great Imitator" of all neuromuscular and neuropsychiatric diseases...Lyme. One need not remember being bitten and need not have had the famous rash to have contracted Lyme. It is a devastating one that hides so well. As it is such a great deceiver, I think Satan himself must have invented it.
Urine Dysbiosis. This test will show the waste byproducts of various pathogens. If you have Candida overgrowth, its telltale chemical will show up in urine, as the body does not normally produce it. Candida can mimic depression.
And you could get tested for levels of B vitamins and vitamin D, all of which are very important in psychiatry.
The neurotransmitter tests are not useful. They only show metabolites in urine or what is floating in the blood, but not what is going on in the nervous system. There is a study at pubmed where they measured neurotransmitters the only accurate way there is...spinal tap...and then assigned the patients to either serotonin or norepinephrine antidepressants depending on which they needed according to the tests. Those who needed serotonin responded equally well to either antidepressant. Those who needed norepinephrine also responded to serotonin antidepressants. This kind of testing sounds so logical on paper, but it just doesn't work in the real world. The drugs do so much more stuff than simply neurotransmitters. They instruct genes, turn them up or down, on or off, influence hormones, and such. Stuff not even related to neurotransmitters. The whole idea that depression is a neurotransmitter thing is not even fact after all these decades. It is still theory and still fails to explain why some improve and some don't.
I've had all the above tests. Total cost out-of-pocket was about $500. Insurance will cover some or all of them if you go through the right labs. I think it is a wise investment to either rule the above causes in or out, so you can more effectively attack your depression. For example, if it is mercury or lead, DMSA is your recovery drug, not an antidepressant. If it is Lyme, you will focus on the antibiotic world instead of the psychiatric world. When the insult on your brain is gone, so is your depression.
poster:bleauberry
thread:873221
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20090104/msgs/873375.html