{"id":943872,"date":"2026-05-07T13:29:20","date_gmt":"2026-05-07T13:29:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/943872\/"},"modified":"2026-05-07T13:29:20","modified_gmt":"2026-05-07T13:29:20","slug":"some-signs-of-depression-may-show-up-in-blood-study-finds-sciencealert","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/943872\/","title":{"rendered":"Some Signs of Depression May Show Up in Blood, Study Finds : ScienceAlert"},"content":{"rendered":"

Depression<\/a> is thought to affect nearly 6 percent<\/a> of adults, but diagnosing it can be tricky: Symptoms vary, and assessment still depends heavily on self-reported experience.<\/p>\n

A more definitive blood test could benefit both patients and doctors.<\/p>\n

That’s something that new research gets us closer to, and it’s based on a study mostly made up of women with HIV<\/a> \u2013 a group that is particularly hard hit by depression, with incidence rates some 2\u20133 times that of the general population.<\/p>\n

The research team, from institutions across the US, analyzed blood samples from 261 women with HIV<\/a> and 179 without the virus<\/a>. Through questionnaires, data were also collected on any depressive symptoms<\/a> these women had recently experienced.<\/p>\n

When blood biomarkers were compared to depression symptoms, there was one statistically significant<\/a> association: between the biological aging of immune cells called monocytes<\/a> and non-somatic (non-physical) symptoms of depression, such as feeling hopeless or disengaged from previously enjoyable activities.<\/p>\n

“This is particularly interesting because people with HIV often have physical symptoms like fatigue that are attributed to their chronic illness rather than a depression diagnosis,” says<\/a> Nicole Beaulieu Perez, a psychiatry researcher from the New York University Rory Meyers College of Nursing.<\/p>\n

“But this flips that on its head because we found that these measures are associated with mood and cognitive symptoms, not somatic symptoms.”<\/p>\n

\"YouTube frameborder=”0\u2033 allow=”accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share” referrerpolicy=”strict-origin-when-cross-origin” allowfullscreen><\/p>\n

Analyzing monocytes is a relatively new<\/a> ‘epigenetic clock’ method \u2013 a way of measuring biological age<\/a> compared to chronological age.<\/p>\n

It’s called MonoDNAmAge, and it looks at methylation, which are molecular tags on the DNA of monocytes, to work out how quickly they’re aging.<\/p>\n

Besides being linked to emotional and psychological symptoms of depression, monocyte aging also outperformed another epigenetic clock in this detective work \u2013 the Horvath clock, which has been around longer<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The suggestion is that a more precise approach, focusing on single cells such as monocytes, might work better for some epigenetic clocks when researchers are trying to join the dots between biological age<\/a> and disease.<\/p>\n

\"Depressed(Milky Way\/Moment\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

While this stops short of being a ready-to-go blood test for depression, considering several symptoms weren’t linked to biological aging, it suggests that such a test might one day be possible.<\/p>\n

It’s also another reminder that depression manifests in a variety of different ways.<\/p>\n

“Depression is not a one-size-fits-all disorder \u2013 it can look really different from person to person, which is why it’s so important to consider varied presentations and not just a clinical label,” says<\/a> Perez.<\/p>\n

“For women with HIV who may be experiencing depression, we want to better understand what’s going on and catch it earlier so that it doesn’t harm their whole overall health.”<\/p>\n

\"BloodWork continues to find blood biomarkers that may help diagnose depression. (Akram Huseyn\/Unsplash<\/a>)<\/p>\n

Symptoms of depression, such as hopelessness or a loss of pleasure, can be overlooked if they’re not also accompanied by physical signs, and this research points to a way that more subtle signs of the disorder could be spotted.<\/p>\n

“I think about the adage, ‘what gets measured gets managed’,” says<\/a> Perez. “An aspirational goal in mental health would be to combine subjective experience with objective biological testing.”<\/p>\n

An earlier, more precise diagnosis means treatments can be explored<\/a> and implemented sooner. We also know that left untreated and unmanaged, depression can often lead to other health issues<\/a> and premature death<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Subscribe<\/a><\/p>\n

Our biological age \u2013 not how many birthdays we’ve had, but the amount of wear and tear on our bodies \u2013 has been linked to depressive symptoms<\/a> before, and this study is further evidence that aging markers could serve as a reliable diagnostic method.<\/p>\n

Related: Brain Pattern Reveals Why Chronic Pain Leads to Depression<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

“Our findings bring us a step closer to this goal of precision mental health care, especially for high-risk populations,” Perez says<\/a>, “by providing a biological framework that could guide future diagnosis and treatment.”<\/p>\n

The research has been published in The Journals of Gerontology, Series A: Biological Sciences and Medical Sciences<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Depression is thought to affect nearly 6 percent of adults, but diagnosing it can be tricky: Symptoms vary,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":943873,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4317],"tags":[105,218,120,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-943872","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mental-health","8":"tag-health","9":"tag-mental-health","10":"tag-msft-content","11":"tag-uk","12":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116533538623106825","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/943872","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=943872"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/943872\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/943873"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=943872"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=943872"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=943872"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}