Ann Robinson’s research reviews—21 July 2022

Depressing news about pharmacogeneticsHow do you decide which antidepressant to prescribe for your patients? Let’s be honest; it’s usually pretty hit and miss, and with relapse rates of 30%, more precision would be welcome. Pharmacogenomic testing looks for gene variants that may predict whether an individual is likely to respond to a drug or have harmful interactions. This randomised trial of nearly 2000 people with major depressive disorder found that pharmacogenetic tests for drug interactions resulted in significantly more prescriptions with no predicted drug-gene interactions compared with people who didn’t have the testing (45% v 18%). However, despite a small early advantage in remission of symptoms (16.5% v 11.2% at 12 weeks), there was no difference in effectiveness between the two groups by 24 weeks. Most people won’t have any predisposition to drug-gene interactions, and future studies could enrich the randomised sample for those with known potential interactions. Testing everyone’s…
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