Tear chemistry could help diagnose depression

The tears of people with major depressive disorder, or clinical depression, have a different chemical composition than the tears of nondepressed people, according to a recent study that highlighted tear fluid´s potential for the simple, rapid diagnosis of mood disorders.

Tear fluid is considered a source of biomarkers, or biological markers, which are seen as indicators of normal biological processes that can be objectively measured, similar to blood pressure or heart rate. In a paper published in the Journal of Psychiatric Research, a group of researchers from Slovakia explored how the analysis of tear fluid may facilitate the diagnosis of mood disorders, such as depression or bipolar disorder, and has potential for future integration in bioinformatic pipelines and personalized medicine.

The study, „Tear fluid biomarkers in major depressive disorder: Potential of spectral methods in biomarker discovery“, was authored by K. Krajčíková, D. Kondrakhova, J. Mašlanková, M. Stupák, I. Talian, T. Kimáková, V. Komanický, K. Dubayová, V. Tomečková (Pavol Jozef Šafárik University), E. Semančíková, E. Pálová, D. Breznoščáková, J. Semančík (L. Pasteur University Hospital and EPAMED s.r.o) and K. Zakuťanská, N. Tomašovičová (Institute of Experimental Physics, Slovak Academy of Sciences).

More information can be find here.