Possible blood test for schizophrenia? “Israeli researchers may have found a way to diagnose schizophrenia by analysing
white blood cells for signs of a chemical that is overactive in patients with the
psychiatric condition.” The amount of mRNA that codes for a specific subset of the dopamine receptor, D3, implicated in schizophrenia, is reliably sngiificantly elevated in the new test. Over the decades, there have been a number of claims of blood chemistry alterations that could predict schizophrenia, none of which has panned out. But this seems less smoke and mirrors than most to me. Of course I’ll mention my standard caveat — schizophrenia is a heterogeneous condition, only some of which relates to neurotransmitter or receptor alterations, so this test isn’t going to be global. British Medical Journal