双相障碍和重性抑郁障碍疾病异质性研究进展

The Research Progress on the Heterogeneity of Bipolar Disorder and Major Depressive Disorder

双相障碍和重性抑郁障碍是两种常见的情感障碍疾病,它们不仅严重影响病人的健康,也给患者家庭和政府造成极大的经济负担。在临床实践中,很难鉴别诊断该两种疾病,因为它们有相似的临床表现,特别是抑郁发作期的双相障碍病人可能和重性抑郁障碍患者临床表现相同。所幸,有不断增加的研究证据提示,重性抑郁障碍和双相障碍两种疾病在发病机制、疾病特点等多个方面存在不同。本文总结了近年来关于双相障碍和重性抑郁障碍疾病异质性的研究进展,主要内容包括两种疾病在临床特点、心理学特征、遗传因素、神经病理学、神经生化代谢等方面的差异。了解这些新进展有助于我们在早期鉴别诊断双相障碍和重性抑郁障碍。

Bipolar disorder (BD) and Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) are two common mood disorders with significant impacts on human health and heavy economic burdens on governments and pa-tients’ families. In clinical practice, it is very difficult to distinguish BD from MDD as the BD pa-tients in depressive episode stage may manifest the same symptoms as those of MDD patients. There is increasing research evidence, however, showing the differences between MDD and BD in multiple aspects, such as clinical characteristics and pathogenesis. Here, we summarized the research progress on the heterogeneity of BD and MDD by reviewing Chinese and English literature published in recent years. The main content includes the differences between the both disorders in clinical manifestations, psychological characteristics, genetic factors, neuropathology, and neurochemical metabolism. These data would be useful for the early identification of BD from MDD.