“The brain is an organ like any other”: what is this blood test that can detect bipolar disorder from April 1 ?

Un test sanguin, mis au point à Montpellier, disponible en France dès le 1er avril, pour dépister les troubles bipolaires. Unsplash – Hush Naidoo Jade Photography

MyEDIT-B, le premier test sanguin permettant d’aider à diagnostiquer le trouble bipolaire, sera commercialisé en France à partir du 1er avril 2024.

From April 1, 2024, in France, a simple blood test will allow you to know whether or not you have bipolarity. However, you will have to wait four weeks to obtain the result.

First blood test

Until today, the diagnosis of bipolar disorder was based exclusively on clinical observation by a psychiatrist via interviews.

Developed by the French start-up Alcediag, the myEDIT-B blood test is the first to differentiate depression from bipolar disorder, a psychiatric disorder in which patients alternate between depressive phase and phase maniac.

Many people affected by this disease can be diagnosed and treated in time.

Adult people treated with medication

This blood test is intended for adults treated with medication for a moderate or severe depressive episode. In particular, those who are likely to suffer from bipolarity. For example if there are cases in their family or if they have obtained very specific responses to antidepressants.

It will be prescribed by a psychiatrist and must be carried out in one of the 400 Synlab brand laboratories. "The majority of the population will be within two hours of a participating laboratory. For the moment, we prefer to do it in our laboratories", specifies Florian Scherrer, medical director of the Synlab network, quoted by 20 minutes.

899 euros

The test costs 899 euros and is not currently reimbursed by Social Security. "We have ten years of experience; investment on funds. The development of this test was very expensive. We used the latest sequencing technologies", explains Alexandra Prieux, quoted by 20 minutes.

The start-up aims to obtain reimbursement from Health Insurance. A clinical study is therefore underway to measure the consequences of the test on the progression of the disease. It should last three years. Economic studies will be carried out subsequently, in order to measure its financial interest.

The brain, an organ like any other

Researchers at Alcediag, the biopharmaceutical company based in Hérault behind the test, started from the idea that the brain is an organ like another.

"When the heart or kidney malfunctions, it emits disease-specific signals into the blood, explains Alexandra Prieux, president of Alcediag. It is the same with the brain, they explain. These signals, or biomarkers, can then be captured by a blood test.

The reliability of the test is greater than 80%."Apart from certain genetic studies, it is rare to have reliable tests to 100 %", underlines Alexandra Prieux. It is therefore not impossible to obtain a false positive since it is a diagnostic tool.

It is therefore up to the doctor to make the final diagnosis, particularly with the patient's history and family history.