Will Pharmacogenetic Testing Revolutionise Treatment of Psychiatric Disorders?

Abstract

In the past decade, there has been a noticeable increase in the number of cases of clinical depression around the world. Traditional prescription methods for those cases showed limited therapeutic benefits in improving drug response and eliminating side effect or adverse reaction. Globally, only half of depressed cases actually responded to traditional prescription treatment under antidepressants. Therefore, it is necessary to find an alternative drug prediction approach that is more effective than current applied methods. Pharmacogenetic testing is a novel personalised prescription method that uses patient's genetic information in order to predict the response of a drug. Furthermore, pharmacogenetic testing brings great promises to the science of personalised medicine in psychiatric clinical practice as studies attest to its superiority and high efficiency. Even though the clinical application is limited, pharmacogenetic testing can be considered as a novel powerful scientific tool that have the capability of revolutionising treatment of psychiatric illness if supported with enough studies and clinical application. in the aim of this review is to provide an overview of current existing psychiatric disorders, especially clinical depression along with current treatment methods. Moreover, I have explained the drug pharmacokinetics pathway inside the body and aims to investigate the role of pharmacogenetic testing for the treatment of psychiatric illness especially clinical depression.