Pharmacogenomics and Personalized Medicine in Mood Disorders

Pharmacogenomics and the search for personalized medicine focus on the attainment of individualized pharmacotherapies that cover genetic variation and target groups of patients that present neurodevelopmental aspects of symptom profiles and biomarkers underlying the pathophysiology of mood disorders. The identification of genetic biomarkers facilitates choice of treatment, prediction of response, and prognosis of outcome over a wide spectrum of symptoms associated with affective states thereby optimizing clinical practice procedures. Several strategies, under development and refinement, show the propensity for derivation of essential elements in the etiopathogenesis of disorder affecting drug efficacy, drug metabolism, and drug adverse effects, e.g., with regard to SSRIs; these include the following: transporter gene expression and genes encoding receptor systems, hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis factors, neurotrophic factors, and inflammatory factors affecting neuroimmune function. Nevertheless, procedural considerations of pharmacogenetics presume the parallel investment of policies and regulations to withstand eventual attempts at misuse thereby ensuring patient integrity.