Department of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom.
Int Rev Neurobiol. 2011;101:259-78. doi: 10.1016/B978-0-12-387718-5.00010-9.
For decades, the diagnosis of schizophrenia and other psychiatric disorders has relied on subjective assessments such as Diagnostic and Statistical Manual criteria. There is now increasing interest in the identification of altered molecular patterns in blood and other accessible body fluids that can be used to help identify, stratify, and monitor psychiatric patients. Since shorter periods of psychosis are associated with a better prognosis, an accurate molecular test may lead to early intervention and thereby improve patient outcomes. In addition, such a test would open up the possibility to stratify more accurately the disease and could represent a novel translational medicine tool, which is crucial for the discovery and development of more efficacious therapies.
几十年来，精神分裂症和其他精神障碍的诊断一直依赖于主观评估，如《诊断与统计手册》标准。现在，人们越来越感兴趣的是在血液和其他可及的体液中识别改变的分子模式，这些模式可用于帮助识别、分层和监测精神科患者。由于精神病发作的时间较短与预后较好相关，因此准确的分子测试可能会导致早期干预，从而改善患者的结果。此外，这样的测试将有可能更准确地分层疾病，并且可以代表一种新的转化医学工具，这对于发现和开发更有效的治疗方法至关重要。
