Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2022 Dec 16:2:100119.
doi: 10.1016/j.pecinn.2022.100119. eCollection 2023 Dec.

A randomized controlled trial of analogue pharmacogenomic testing feedback for psychotropic medications

John Young  1 , Aileen Jimenez  2 , Madeline Pruett  1 , Laken Hancock  1 , McCall Schruff  1
Affiliations

A randomized controlled trial of analogue pharmacogenomic testing feedback for psychotropic medications

John Young et al. PEC Innov. .

Abstract

Objective: To examine the impact of various presentations of pharmacogenomic testing results using a published, color-coded decision support tool (DST) format as a standard stimulus to list possible medications.

Methods: Participants were randomly assigned to groups and asked to decide which psychotropic medication they would prefer if depressed. Three of the groups varied the color-coded category of fluoxetine and received a statement indicating that this was the most prescribed drug for depression. A fourth control condition omitted base rate information. Participants also provided detail about their decision-making processes through a qualitative interview.

Results: Comparison of the first three groups indicated that significantly more participants selected medications from the highest category of likely effectiveness when fluoxetine appeared in this list. Comparison of the control group to its relevant analogue suggested no significant differences in selection strategy. Qualitative interview responses indicated participant comfort with genetic testing despite awareness of having very limited understanding of these techniques and their implications.

Conclusions: Both DST color-coding and base rates were influential in driving drug selection decisions, despite most participants indicating they did not understand this information.

Innovation: Efforts to standardize pharmacogenomic stimuli may lead to advances in methods of studying quantifiable healthcare decisions. Attention to the context for presenting test results may also be a useful source of understanding patient responses, particularly regarding complex tests that are likely to be interpreted heuristically.

Keywords: Clinical feedback; Medical decision-making; Patient interaction; Pharmacogenomic testing; Psychotropics.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflicting interests.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
CONSORT diagram.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Phillips K.A. Evolving payer coverage policies on genomic sequencing tests: beginning of the end or end of the beginning? JAMA. 2018;319(Jun):2379–2380. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Phillips K.A., Deverka P.A., Hooker G.W., Douglas M.P. Genetic test availability and spending: where are we now? Where are we going? Health Aff. 2018;37:710–716. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Lynch J.A., Berse B., Dotson D.W., Khoury M.J., Coomer N., Kautter J. Utilization of genetic tests: analysis of gene-specific billing in Medicare claims data. Genet Med. 2017;19:890. - PubMed
    1. De Sa J., Carlson B., Caputo N., Vojta D., Sandy L., Stevens S. Growth of molecular diagnostics and genetic testing in the USA, 2008–2011: analysis and implications. Pers Med. 2013;10(Nov):785–792. - PubMed
    1. Hicks J.K., Aquilante C.L., Dennenberger H.M., Gammal R.S., Funk R.S., Aitken S.L., et al. Precision pharmacotherapy: Integrating pharmacogenomics into clinical pharmacy practice. J Am Coll Clin Pharm. 2019;2(3):303–313. - PMC - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources