Department of Psychiatry, Amsterdam UMC location Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
Amsterdam Public Health, Mental Health program, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
Bioessays. 2024 Oct;46(10):e2300246. doi: 10.1002/bies.202300246. Epub 2024 Sep 11.
Clinical mental health researchers may understandably struggle with how to incorporate biological assessments in clinical research. The options are numerous and are described in a vast and complex body of literature. Here we provide guidelines to assist mental health researchers seeking to include biological measures in their studies. Apart from a focus on behavioral outcomes as measured via interviews or questionnaires, we advocate for a focus on biological pathways in clinical trials and epidemiological studies that may help clarify pathophysiology and mechanisms of action, delineate biological subgroups of participants, mediate treatment effects, and inform personalized treatment strategies. With this paper we aim to bridge the gap between clinical and biological mental health research by (1) discussing the clinical relevance, measurement reliability, and feasibility of relevant peripheral biomarkers; (2) addressing five types of biological tissues, namely blood, saliva, urine, stool and hair; and (3) providing information on how to control sources of measurement variability.
临床心理健康研究人员可能会难以理解如何在临床研究中纳入生物学评估。可供选择的方法有很多，并在大量复杂的文献中有描述。在这里，我们提供了一些指南，以帮助那些希望在研究中纳入生物学测量的心理健康研究人员。除了关注通过访谈或问卷测量的行为结果外，我们还主张在临床试验和流行病学研究中关注生物途径，这有助于阐明病理生理学和作用机制，描绘参与者的生物学亚组，调节治疗效果，并为个性化治疗策略提供信息。通过本文，我们旨在通过以下三个方面来弥合临床和生物学心理健康研究之间的差距：（1）讨论相关外周生物标志物的临床相关性、测量可靠性和可行性；（2）讨论五种类型的生物组织，即血液、唾液、尿液、粪便和头发；（3）提供关于如何控制测量变异性来源的信息。
