The Path to Diagnosis

Everybody’s health conditions can present themselves in different ways. Because of this, your doctor may need to run various tests to determine what is causing you to feel depressed. To begin, your doctor will need to ask some questions to develop an understanding of what is going on. These questions will take a deeper look at symptoms, family history, and personal health history. Using the information the doctor receives from their patient, they will then decide on tests to run. These tests may include: 

• A depression screening: If your symptoms sound like depression, your doctor may wish to screen you further for depression. 
• A complete blood count: This test can be used to determine if one has any health conditions like an infection or anemia. 
• MRI scan: In rare cases, depressive symptoms can be caused by conditions like brain tumors. A doctor may wish to check for this to be safe. 
• Vitamin deficiency tests: certain vitamin deficiencies can lead to symptoms similar to depression 
• Kidney health: A doctor may run some tests for kidney disease as the health condition has some similar symptoms to depression 
• Thyroid health panel: Certain thyroid conditions can have significant impacts on mood and cognition