Prescribing Decisions May Depend on Genetic Tests
Can your doctor personalize drug therapy? How far into the future will it be before doctors use genetic testing to personalize drug choices? Ten years? Twenty years? How about – today.
As of December 2007 the FDA now requires recommendations to genetically test patients of Asian decent before prescribing a drug called Tegretol, used to treat Bipolar Disorder and epilepsy. There is a greater risk for these patients to develop a potentially fatal skin rash on Tegretol if they carry a particular “HLA” gene. If patients of Asian ancestry test positive for that HLA gene they should not take Tegretol (generic name carbamazepine). For those of you wondering if you are accidentally reading a SciFi blog, the announcement for the Tegretol labeling change is posted on www.fda.gov/cdrug/infosheets/HCP/carbamazepineHCP.htm
As researchers identify such genetic markers for medication side effects, doctors will be able to personalize your medication choices. Personalizing medications means better response, fewer side effects, less trial and error. Every patient’s genetic map is unique – their genetic thumbprint. Incredibly we are already at the point of being able to genetically predict an individual’s susceptibility to disease and now we are able to predict their susceptibility to medications. In 2007 scientists at the National Institute of Mental Health even found genes that influence the risk of experiencing suicidal thoughts upon staring a well known antidepressant drug, celexa.
This rapidly growing knowledge in genetics and genetic testing promises to forever change the way we deliver health care in our lifetime.
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