Genes affecting antidepressant response

DanDan · Supporter Joined: 27 Mar 2006 Posts: 207

If you have been wondering why you don’t respond to certain antidepressants and why you are not feeling better you will learn from this article that it is because of your genes.

Journal of the American Medical Association published a study done by Korean scientists that answers why some depressed people don’t respond to treatments with antidepressant drugs.

Scientists from the Sungkyunkwan University School of Medicine in Seoul, Korea found that variations in two different genes affect people's response to antidepressant drugs. The reason why they started investigating antidepressant treatment is because of high failure of these drugs to help people. Statistics show that initial drug treatments fail in 30% - 40% of major depression sufferers.

The scientists decided to investigate the effectiveness of norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors (NRIs) and selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) in 241 Korean patients with major late-life depression. It was found that those patients with the GG polymorphism (variation) of the norepinephrine transporter (NET) gene G1287A responded much better to therapy with NRIs than SSRIs. They also found that polymorphisms in the serotonin transporter gene 5-HTT affect a patient's response to SSRIs, and that the 5-HTTLPR s/l polymorphism of 5-HTT plays a role in both agents.

The Koreans are hoping to confirm their findings within other populations and age groups in order to improve antidepressant treatments.

Genes affecting antidepressant response

LIFEFORM SOCIAL COMMUNITY NETWORK