Depression Treatment: How Genetic Testing Can Help in Selecting the Best Medications @ MATTER OF FACTS

 

Modern Science has achieved a lot in the field of Medicine and trying to serve humanity in all the requisite fields.  Depression Treatment: How Genetic Testing Can Help in Selecting the Best Medications and That's according to a new study conducted by the United States Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) & released online in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

According to the researchers, pharmacogenetic testing may assist hospitals and doctors by providing valuable information on how a person's body metabolises medication. This data can help doctors and others avoid administering antidepressants that may have unfavourable side effects.

To identify the optimal treatment and dose for depression, trial and error are sometimes used. The researchers expect that genetic testing may help to reduce this by providing information about how an individual may metabolise a medicine.

According to the researchers, genetic screening did not predict how well an individual would react to a specific prescription, but rather how a person metabolised a substance. A class of drugs is a link between such medication as well as a generic variant that can affect how a person reacts to that medicine. Understanding so much about prescription medications may help determine whether to administer medicine and whether a dose change is required.

Approximately 2,000 participants from 22 VA medical institutions who were identified with clinical depression were treated with medicines in the trial. The individuals were randomly assigned, with half receiving standard therapy and the other half having pharmacogenetic testing.

Doctors recommended medicine to individuals who got standard treatment without the advantage of knowing the results of genetic testing. According to the findings, 59 per cent of patients whose doctors got the genetic testing data utilised drugs with no specific drug. Only 26% of the control group received medications that did not interact with any genes.

The data, according to the researchers, reveal that clinicians avoided drugs with a projected drug-gene interaction.

"Most patients are tried after at least one or two medicines have failed or they have seen serious adverse effects," said David A. Merrill, a psychologist and the president of the Pacific Neurological Institute's Pacific Brain Local Clinic at Providence Saint John's Health Center in California. "There are genuine genetic variances in how people metabolise medicines." Knowing about their DNA in advance allows them to choose more palatable solutions."

At 12 and 24 weeks, researchers asked individuals about their depressive symptoms.

Participants who got genetic screening were more likely compared to the control group to experience depression remission after 12 weeks.

The result was less obvious at 24 weeks. According to the researchers, this demonstrated that genetic testing might alleviate depressive symptoms quicker than if a patient did not obtain the testing.

What experts believe

According to Dr Alex Dimitriu, a psychiatry and sleep medicine expert and pioneer of Menlo Park Psychiatry & Sleep Medicine in California and BrainfoodMD, there is a place for diagnostic procedures when treating people with depression.

Treatment-resistant depression and much more complicated ones are examples of situations that may necessarily require genetic testing.

"It informs me whether someone would metabolise a medicine quickly or slowly, which means the amount of the medication will either be too low or too high based on the person's metabolism," Dimitriu said to Healthline. "I've utilized it in just a few unusual circumstances to examine what choices are still available."

"Watching the signs and response in my patients is more essential to me than pharmacogenetic testing," he stated. "I visit my patients frequently, especially when beginning a new medication, and we can take it slowly and monitor how well the patient is doing." With appropriate monitoring and charting, you can easily determine who reacts too fast or too slow and at what amount if you start at a low dose and gradually increase the dose."

Some clinicians do not believe the science is ready and will not use pharmacogenomics screening based on this research.

"About 10 years ago, I did pharmacogenetic testing, and the research is sound." Dr Ernest Rasyida, a psychiatrist at Providence St. Joseph's Hospital, explained that the test "tells you the person's genetic composition."

"From a scientific standpoint," he told Healthline, "this was fantastic research." It was discovered that the doctor used the data 60% of the time.

That is, the doctor reviewed the data and the drugs in the 'green zone' and decided not to employ them due to side effects or other factors. Instead, based on their clinical expertise, they picked a medication in the "red zone."

Pharmacogenetic testing can be utilised to treat non-mental health issues such as cancer or heart disease in addition to depression.

The test poses no threat to the patient, according to experts, and the experts think it will substantially assist certain patients.

"Pharmacogenetic outcomes are quite well and have been for years, but clinical practise of medicine is quite conservative, so clearly favourable changes take a long time to become standard practise," Merrill said to Healthline. "Doing the test appears to be a no-brainer to me if 15 to 20% of patients starting on a new medicine may avoid a serious gene-drug combination by knowing their results."

Author's Corner

AWAIS ASHRAF

We firmly believe that everyone has the right to receive information that is based on facts and science, as well as analysis that is grounded in authority and integrity. This is the reason we took a different tack and decided to keep our reporting accessible to all readers, regardless of where they reside or their financial situation. This implies that more people can be better educated, more unified, and motivated to take significant action.

Supporting us simply takes a minute and costs as little as $1. Please think about giving us a recurring monthly donation if you can. I'm grateful.