Personalized psychiatry: a realistic goal

Abstract

It is becoming increasingly evident that the implementation of true personalized medicine will not come as rapidly and smoothly as initially hoped. In the aftermath of the drafting of the human genome in 2001, the popular and scientific media featured numerous commentaries heralding the approaching arrival of personalized medicine to the clinic, and describing its huge benefits for patients. Media coverage predicted a drastic transformation for the practice of medicine, second to the revolution brought about by the discovery of vaccines and antibiotics. From the perspective of another 3 years, during which substantial new insights were made into the enormous complexity of human genome variation, it seems that true personalized medicine may still be decades away for many aspects of medical treatment. Nonetheless, the prospects for implementation of at least certain elements of personalized medicine for one key discipline, psychiatry, might be relatively close and more realistic. With the correct focus, realization of some benefits of genetic patient profiling for psychiatric pharmacotherapy might be near, and in due course, lead the way for true personalized psychiatry.