Psychological impact of genetic testing for adult-onset disorders. An update for clinicians

Abstract

Testing for gene mutations that confer susceptibility to adult-onset disorders has potential benefits, but these must be balanced against the psychological harms, if any. We review published findings on the psychological effects of such testing, focusing on Huntington's disease, which has the most available data, and the hereditary cancer syndromes. Most of the evidence suggests that non-carriers and carriers differ significantly in terms of short-term, but not long-term, psychological adjustment to test results. The psychological impact of genetic testing depends more on pretest psychological distress than the test result itself.