Positive results from a study on precise medication dosing. According to a recent research conducted by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, pharmacogenomic testing may assist doctors in avoiding prescription antidepressants that can have unfavorable side effects. Pharmacogenomics examines how
Depression is a widespread and serious medical condition that has a negative impact on how you feel, think, and behave.According to a recent research conducted by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, pharmacogenomic testing may assist doctors in avoiding prescription antidepressants that can have unfavorable side effects. Pharmacogenomics examines how genes influence how the body reacts to drugs.
The patients enrolled in the study were initiating or switching treatment with an antidepressant drug. The study included nearly 2,000 patients from 22 VA medical centers who were randomized evenly, with half receiving pharmacogenomic testing and the other half getting usual care. Oslin and his colleagues aimed to learn if genetic testing helped patients receive fewer medications with predicted drug-gene interactions and if that produced better outcomes.
The study found a marked shift in prescribing away from medications with significant drug-gene interactions or moderate drug-gene interactions. Overall, 59% of the patients in the genetic testing group received a medication with no predicted drug-gene interaction, compared with 26% in the control group. The researchers defined that difference as “statistically significant and clinically meaningful.
“We were not powered to look specifically at 24 weeks,” Oslin explains. “That wasn’t part of our primary hypothesis. Our primary hypothesis was an overall effect. And we showed an overall effect in all three of the ways that we measured outcomes. So, it’s a glass half full, glass half empty kind of thing. Another way to think about the results is the group that had the pharmacogenetic test results had a faster response. That also was not something that we tested.
For providers who would like to do pharmacogenomic testing in the future, the burden is low across the board, says Oslin. There’s no risk to patients in getting the test.