Personalized Care for Depression: Bringing Immuno-Metabolic Depression from Bench to Bedside

Although depression is recognized as a major public health burden, depression treatments are effective in only around two-thirds of patients. One of the likely causes for these low success rates of treatment, is that depression is not a ‘one-size-fits-all’ concept. Depression is rather a collection of different phenotypes, each with specific pathology, and each potentially requiring different treatment.

The PERCIM project is funded by a ZonMw grant for Personalized Medicine. Our aim is to improve personalized care for depression by focusing on a specific subtype: Immuno-metabolic depression, which is characterized by a unique clinical and biological profile. Clinical characteristics of immuno-metabolic depression are appetite increase, leaden paralysis and fatigue. Biological characteristics of immuno-metabolic depression are increased inflammatory activation and alterations of energy metabolism.

Studies indicate that immuno-metabolic depression is associated with a poor response to antidepressant treatment but with increased effectiveness of lifestyle interventions. However, it is not clear yet which clinical and biological features best capture immuno-metabolic depression, and thereby may explain the poor response to antidepressants. Also, we do not know yet which lifestyle interventions are most effective in immuno-metabolic (IM) depression. The PERCIM project will bridge the gaps between bench and bedside that currently exist.