Clinical utility of serum biomarkers for major psychiatric disorders

There is a major unmet clinical need for molecular blood-based biomarkers in studies of major psychiatric disorders. Thus far, identification of such biomarkers has been sparse, most likely due to the fact that this is reliant on long-standing diagnostic concepts used in psychiatry, which are notoriously heterogeneous. Also, identification of biomarkers for a syndrome that has already been categorized based on clinical phenomenology is not useful in the clinic. This chapter describes the need for innovative approaches for identification of biomarkers which can been used to classify at-risk patients such as youngsters with prodromal symptoms for psychosis and existing patients who are likely to progress to more severe states. The authors argued for the use of broader categories of related patients and to deconstruct the traditional diagnoses in favor of molecular biomarker profiles.