A positron emission tomography (PET) imaging technique can now help predict if a specific treatment will be effective for patients with a major depressive disorder (MDD), reveals a new study. Major depressive disorder (MDD) is a debilitating condition that affects more than 14 million Americans.
‘Positron emission tomography (PET) imaging helps avoid unnecessary tests and treatment for a major depressive disorder (MDD).’
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No such marker is currently available in clinical psychiatry. The study is featured in the April issue of The Journal of Nuclear Medicine.The PET tracer 11C-DASB targets the serotonin transporter protein (5-HTT) in the amygdala of the brain, which is important for emotional processing.
The drug escitalopram, a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI), can be an effective MDD treatment, but not for all patients. A PET scan with 11C-DASB can indicate which patients will benefit by measuring the level of 5-HTT present before treatment.
"MDD is a heterogeneous disorder, which makes it extremely difficult to treat effectively," explains Mala R. Ananth of Stony Brook University in Stony Brook, New York.
"Optimizing treatment is challenging and is performed by trial and error, which could result in weeks of ineffective treatment, placing a burden on patients. As such, a pretreatment indicator that helps clinicians determine whether treatment will be successful is desperately needed."
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Our results indicate that patients who found relief following escitalopram treatment had less 5-HTT protein before treatment began. This is exciting because it suggests that pretreatment neurobiology can be used to predict response to treatment, potentially preventing ineffective treatment trials."
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The researchers found a significant difference in amygdala binding, with medication-free patients showing an 11percent lower amygdala binding than controls. These results suggest 5-HTT amygdala binding should be examined further, in conjunction with other measures, as a potential biomarker for remission following standardized escitalopram treatment.
Ananth remarks, "Pretreatment markers of effectiveness are needed to reduce the burden of ineffective treatment trials for patients. Psychiatry currently has no objective markers to determine whether a treatment will be effective. PET imaging can fill that gap, and can be used to quantify biological features that indicate a successful course of treatment. Further, these features shed light on the neurobiology of MDD needed to develop novel and more targeted therapeutics."
Source-Eurekalert