Saliva as a bio-marker to help diagnosis of Bipolar

The Bipolar disease is increasingly gathering lot of medical attention and concern, in view of the fact that there are escalating numbers of incidences of this manic depressive disorder. Of major concern with bipolar disorder is the lack of effective diagnostic tools. Many different approaches have been tried and many more are still in the research stage. Bipolar disorder is a severely debilitating disorder, taking a toll on the mental, physical and the emotional well-being of the individual. An early diagnosis is preferable to modify the course of the disease, in a manner advantageous to the patient. That is the rationale behind the frantic attempts at unearthing a practical diagnostic tool.

Conventionally blood and serum have been used as a diagnostic medium, for the majority of the diseases. But recently the discovery of human saliva as a bio-marker has turned out to be a promising one. Saliva as a bio-marker can not only diagnose the disease, but also can prove extremely valuable in the prognosis and the pin-pointing of the different risk factors of the various diseases. The reason behind the surge of excitement on saliva being a useful bio-marker could be attributed to a variety of facts, as listed below:

• Using saliva for diagnosis is an entirely non-invasive method. The patient or the person, who needs to be diagnosed for the incidence of a particular disease, does not need being put through unnecessary needle pricks and the ensuing pain and discomfort.
• The diagnosis of a disease using saliva is turning out to be much cheaper than the conventional methods, thus relieving the burden of the expenses involved.
• Using saliva for diagnosis significantly decreases the diagnostic time frame compared to conventional methods.

Many scientists at the Scottish University and numerous doctors like Dr. Juan Diaz-Mochon and many others have been involved in the research of saliva being used in the diagnosis of bipolar disease too.

Since 2008, a certain spit diagnostic kit, for the bipolar disease has been selling quite briskly, especially over the internet. This diagnostic kit called Psynome, is based on the research work done by John Kelsoe, MD, a board-certified psychiatrist and Professor of Psychiatry at the University of California San Diego. He is also a co-founder of the company-Psynomics Inc which manufactures the Psynome kit, and serves as executive vice president.

The Psynome which is meant to be used at home, without any medical supervision, tries to pin-point 2 mutations in the gene GRK3, which is connected to bipolar disorder. This test uses saliva for diagnostic purposes, but the very important fact needs to be stressed that, it can help only in finding out a genetic predilection for the disease. It cannot say if the particular person is suffering from bipolar disease or not. Many mental health experts and professionals seem to be wary of this spit test kit, and suggest that it would be prudent to conduct further research before using it.