Is there a blood test that a patient can get to determine schizophrenia?

Hey. Ive read that in research now they've come up with a blood test to distinguish schizophrenia from bipolar, and that they're working on one to diagnose / check for schiophrenia. Can't find out if they're actually in practice now for patients. Anyone know? Thanks Xx

blood or urine samples from the person can be tested at hospitals or physicians鈥?offices for the presence of these drugs.

The articles I have read suggest heredity as the cause of schizophrenia and therefore testing of the blood can pin point certain genes or target certain chemicals presence in the blood to deterime if one may develop the disease.

Current research is evaluating possible physical diagnostic tests (such as a blood test for schizophrenia, special IQ tests for identifying schizophrenia, eye-tracking, brain imaging, 'smell tests', etc), but these are still in trial stages at only a few universities and companies and are not yet widely used. I t will likely be a few years before these on the market, and adopted by hospitals, etc

Schizophrenia and bipolar disorder do have similar symptoms but are two very different 'conditions'. They are usually diagnosed by the symptoms the person is presenting at the time but what would be the use of defining a person as 'schizophrenic' or 'bipolar'? It wouldn't matter if you knew for definite a diagnosis because the symptoms a person presented would be unique and individual to them.

Maybe if people were treat as people and not a condition it would be more usefull than recieving a blood test to make it easier for other people to classify them

Interesting question

Diagnosing Schizophrenia with a Blood Test


Israeli researchers may have found a way to diagnose schizophrenia by analyzing white blood cells for signs of a chemical that is overactive in patients with the psychiatric condition. Psychiatrists may be able to give patients a simple blood test to determine at an early stage whether a patient has the disorder instead of observing behavior for at least six months before diagnosing and treating it.

The blood test, which has been patented but is not likely to be commercially available for several years, was proposed and tried on patients by Professor Sara Fuchs of the immunology department of the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot and by graduate student Tal Ilani.

Numerous research findings, said Professor Fuchs, suggest a possible connection between the disease and an excessive activity of dopamine. This activity is dependent, among other factors, on the number of dopamine receptors on the surface of nerve cells.

As identifying dopamine receptors on the surface of white blood cells is very difficult, the scientists focused on an earlier stage in receptor formation, the stage at which messenger RNA (mRNA) molecules in the cells convey the generic information needed for making dopamine receptors from the cell nucleus to the ribosome, the small cellular 鈥渇actory鈥?where receptors are manufactured.


Statistical analysis showed that the blood of patients with schizophrenia contains on average 3.6 times more mRNA molecules of dopamine receptors of a particular kind (D3) than the blood of healthy people. The high levels were observed in patients treated with various drugs as well as those who received no drugs. The scientists proposed using the blood test determining the levels of mRNA that encode D3 receptor of the membranes of white blood cells as a test for schizophrenia


The research is very important, not only because it makes objective and early diagnosis realistic, but it stresses the biological nature of schizophrenia and thus will help reduce the public stigma of the disease. 鈥?br>

Yes, its actually a DNA test that detects a specific sequence in your DNA to determine if your suspectible to the disease. Then the doctors will find out if you are producing the mRNA (that is, if the gene is turned "on") and if you are, then you would have the disease.

Check out this website: http://www.arrayit.com/Products/Microarr... I'm in a pathogenic microbiology class and we just studied this.

This new technology is out there and will be more widely available soon!

THe next step will be finding a drug that can turn the "gene" off. They've found one for depression. But the results are promsing.

This is the first time that a schizophrenia/bipolar disorder diagnostic blood test has been developed that classifies patients into different subgroups that are each associated with distinct underlying disease mechanisms and specific drug targets. The discovery, using Curidium's proprietary technology Homomatrix脙鈥毭偮? of highly statistically significantly different schizophrenic/bipolar disease patient subgroups was announced previously by the Company.
http://www.huliq.com/21535/curidium-deve...

I just finished doing my medical school psych rotation with a psychiatrist who also ran research on schizo and bipolar at his facility for GSK and others. Last I heard mentioned is that in schizophrenia the dopamine is really high causing psychosis and somehow measuring it's byproduct could probably tell you information.

Schizophrenia is a mental illness not physical problem. I really don't see how it could be determined through a blood test. Blood tests can tell you if you have a liver problem or almost anything internal but the brain is altogether more complex..

I'm not aware of any test but if the condition causes a specific and identifiable difference in blood chemistry then is unique to it then i can see how that would work.

No. Both bipolar and schizophrenia or mental illnesess, there is no blood test used to diagnose.

That sounds... absurd.