Randomized controlled trials have not been kind to commercial pharmacogenetic panels, but will Genecept’s fate be any different?

Is genetic testing ready for clinical practice? It depends on which test we’re talking about. In this interview John Nurnberger details the tests to pay attention to on a genetic panel and describes how to use whole exome sequencing (WES) to identify genetic causes of autism and intellectual disability.

Given how many essentially equivalent medications we have to choose from, how great would it be to have a test that tells us which drug to prescribe for which patient? Everybody wants personalized medicine, and in some other specialties, such as oncology, this is becoming a standard part of treatment. In this article, we’ll review some of the basics of pharmacogenetic testing and examine in more detail the commercial genetic tests that are currently available.

The basic goal of this kind of research is to try to find an association between a genetic variant and the clinical response to a particular medication. Given that there are dozens of medications to choose from for any given disorder, it would be very helpful if we could do a genetic test that would tell us which drug is the best for a particular patient.

Background:Recently, The Boston Globe ran an article that picked up on The Carlat Psychiatry Report's recent coverage of the GeneSight test. It's a promising technology, but the marketing has leap-frogged ahead of the science. Web Chat Panel: Daniel Carlat, MD, Founder and Editor-in-Chief of The Carlat Psychiatry Report  Beth Daley, Investigative Reporter and Author...

In October, 2015, The Boston Globe ran an article that picked up on The Carlat Psychiatry Report's coverage of the GeneSight test. It's a promising technology, but the marketing has leap-frogged ahead of the science.

Choosing the “right” treatment for a given patient involves a large number of factors, including personal preference—both the clinician’s and the patient’s. Is there a better way?

Assurex Health recently sent me an email inviting me to dine at Legal Seafood to learn about “Clinical Applications of Psychiatric Pharmacogenetics.” I didn’t go, but increasingly I am hearing from colleagues about their experiences at these dinner programs: “What do you think about this GeneSight test? The data looked pretty impressive at this dinner.”

Get advice on how to evaluate the methodology of biomarker studies in an interview with James Coyne, PhD, clinical health psychologist, professor emeritus of in the psychiatry with University of Pennsylvania and professor of health psychology, University of Groningen, the Netherlands.

In psychiatry, personalization is largely based on “pharmacogenetics,” the selection of medications based on genetic factors associated with drug response and tolerability. Could your patient’s genetic code predict which medications you prescribe?