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From April 1, it will be possible in France to take a blood test to find out if you suffer from bipolar disorder. An advance that could drastically accelerate diagnosis and treatment. We spoke about it with Alexandra Prieux, president of Alcédiag, the company that created the test.
In France, 1 to 2.5% of the population currently suffer from bipolar disorders, or potentially more than a million and a half people. Patients who alternate between depressive phases and manic phases, in pain, while waiting for a diagnosis which often takes a long time to come (7 years on average) due to the complexity of its detection. Bipolar disorder can indeed be confused with depression. But a new blood test, myEDIT-B, created by the French company Alcédiag and available from April 1, could well speed up and simplify the diagnosis.
myEDIT-B, the test in question is a simple blood test, which can reveal markers of the disease in 4 weeks, as Alexandra Prieux, president of Alcédiag, explains to Doctissimo:
“To create this test, we started from a basic credo which is the fact that the brain is an organ like any other. However, when your liver or your heart is sick, there are markers of this disease in the blood. The brain is very complex, the seat of our emotions, it is an organ that we do not always understand as well as the others, but it is no less an organ. When it is sick, it also emits signals. All the expertise that we have carried out for more than 10 years is to find these signals”, itwhich is the case today.
The team thus dug into the RNA side and a specific mechanism: RNA editing. “This physiological mechanism occurs normally in everyone but is altered by certain pathologies, such as psychiatric illnesses., underlines the president of the start-up. The test has a reliability rate of 80%.
Can the test replace a psychiatrist’s diagnosis?
Can the biological examination then replace the doctor or the use of a psychiatrist to speed up the process? That’s not exactly it. On the other hand, it will undoubtedly shorten medical wandering.
“Today, we are positioning this test as a “diagnostic aid”, that is to say that it is an element that the psychiatrist will be able to use in addition to what he currently has in his possession, such as interviews, his relationship with the patient, standardized measurement scales, the history of the patient and his family”.
The analysis must therefore be prescribed by psychiatrists, in partnership with Synlab laboratories. In addition, his return within 4 weeks should fit into the time between two appointments with the psychiatrist (one month on average). A breakthrough for people who suffer from both symptoms and medical wandering.
“By reducing the occurrence of phases, people still have vulnerabilities but they can function, they have less risk of losing their job, consuming toxic substances, developing an anxiety disorder, damaging their family and emotional life and present a risk of suicide attempt” indicated Chantal Henry, professor of psychiatry at GHU Paris psychiatry and neurosciences in 20 Minutes.
Will it be refunded?
From April 2024, the myEDIT-B test will therefore be available, on prescription, in the laboratories of the SYNLAB France network for patients aged 18 and over, currently being treated for a Characterized Depressive Episode (EDC), moderate or severe.
However, it will not be covered by Health Insurance. A downside when we know that it will cost between 800 and 900 euros. However, this could change.
“It is not reimbursed at the moment, as is the case with all innovative tests. But we know the importance of the subject and we have been working on it for several months, a clinical study is also underway, carried out with the HAS. The goal is to do everything we can to ensure that this exam is reimbursed as quickly as possible. But these are processes that take time.” concludes Alexandra Prieux.