Genetics Will Help To Treat Depression More Effectively

How to describe depression ?


Many a time the symptoms can be misleading. Everyone has felt depression at times over such challenging situations as a setback in one’s career or the ending of an important relationship. In case of majority of people, the sadness is temporary. But the major depressive disorder is more than just a temporary feeling. It is relatively long-lasting, can get worse over time, and significantly interferes with a person’s daily activities.


Depression is the most common mental health disorder after anxiety disorders. It affects 7% of adults in US in any given year, with a lifetime prevalence of 21% of all Americans.I am sure such a precise analysis is not available for such disorder in India.The World Health Organization accept that it is the leading cause of worldwide disability.


It is also interesting to note that men and women experience depression differently. Women are affected at twice the rate of men, while men with depression are more likely to die by suicide. There are also gender differences in the way symptoms are experienced.


There is a new branch of medical research called pharmacogenomics which uses information about a person's genetic makeup to choose the drugs and drug's doses that are likely to work best for that particular person. This will help doctors to bypass some of the 'trial and error' phase traditionally inherent in prescribing anti-depressant medication.


This is going to open exciting new frontier and in fact is in a early stage, but appears to be very promising for the people suffering from depression.Otherwise tilldate, there are multiple challenges in prescribing anti-depressant medication due to the following variables :

• which of the three drug classes to be prescribed each class works on different neuro-transmitter-either serotonin, norepenephrine or dopamine 
• which class is most likely to mitigate the patient's most severe symptoms 
• how can side effects of these medicines like gastric distress, headaches, weight gain, loss of libido, be avoided. 
• how will the anti-depressant interact with other medication(s) 

The advent of pharmacogenomics put another device to the physician's tool box. By using small sample of a patient's blood, doctors can now run cytochrome P450 tests to determine how the patient;s body processes and metabolizes drugs. How quickly or how slowly a patient metabolizes medicine, this fact will have a potential impact on the medication's efficacy and the severity of side effects.


Availability of Genetic testing facilities globally will be a step further, enabling patients and doctors to test multiple specific genes associated with the class of drugs the doctor is considering-and then offering recommendations






Recently, a study conducted by Mayo Clinic, the symptoms of patients with depression who had medications prescribed to them based on the findings/ recommendations of Gene-Sight's psychotropic testing were reduced 70 per cent more effectively than the patients who were prescribed anti--depressants without genetic testing.






As the genetic testing evolves and popularizes, the pharma companies will use that data to create more targeted psychotropic medications. It will help not only in eliminating a patient;s symptoms but also prevent recurrence.