Boulenger J P, Zarifian E
Rev Epidemiol Sante Publique. 1985;33(4-5):361-7.
Until recently, the impossibility to study directly the functioning of the brain has led to the development of various means of assessing peripherally the activity of neurotransmitter systems. However, the study of peripheral biological markers in various psychiatric diseases did not improve dramatically the assessment of diagnosis or prognosis by psychiatrists. The example of the dexamethasone suppression test, supposed to be specifically disturbed in endogenous depression, is striking since numerous recent studies have given similar results in other psychiatric diseases. The negativity of these studies, related to various methodological problems, should bring us to reconsider our strategies. The measurement of peripheral biological markers may be interesting to define predisposition factors or to study the correlates of symptomatic but not syndromic dimensions: epidemiological studies could be a helpful tool to help solving these problems. However, the etiological complexity and the multi-factorial origin of most psychiatric diseases make difficult the discovery of a specific biological marker for a given diagnosis.
直到最近，由于无法直接研究大脑的功能，人们开发了各种在外周评估神经递质系统活性的方法。然而，对各种精神疾病外周生物学标志物的研究并没有显著改善精神科医生对诊断或预后的评估。地塞米松抑制试验被认为在内源性抑郁症中会受到特异性干扰，其例子很引人注目，因为最近的大量研究在其他精神疾病中也得到了类似结果。这些与各种方法学问题相关的研究结果为阴性，这应该促使我们重新考虑我们的策略。测量外周生物学标志物对于确定易患因素或研究症状而非综合征维度的相关性可能很有意义：流行病学研究可能是帮助解决这些问题的有用工具。然而，大多数精神疾病的病因复杂性和多因素起源使得难以发现针对特定诊断的特异性生物学标志物。
