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Review
. 2023 Nov 10:14:1307473.
doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2023.1307473. eCollection 2023.

The role of pharmacogenetics in the treatment of major depressive disorder: a critical review

Stefano Barlati  1   2 , Alessandra Minelli  3   4 , Gabriele Nibbio  1 , Lorenzo Bertoni  1 , Nicola Necchini  1 , Stefano Paolini  1 , Alessia Muscarella  2 , Ughetta Bosco Ubertino  2 , Irene Calzavara-Pinton  1 , Antonio Vita  1   2 , Massimo Gennarelli  3   4
Affiliations
Review

The role of pharmacogenetics in the treatment of major depressive disorder: a critical review

Stefano Barlati et al. Front Psychiatry. .

Abstract

Pharmacological therapy represents one of the essential approaches to treatment of Major Depressive Disorder (MDD). However, currently available antidepressant medications show high rates of first-level treatment non-response, and several attempts are often required to find an effective molecule for a specific patient in clinical practice. In this context, pharmacogenetic analyses could represent a valuable tool to identify appropriate pharmacological treatment quickly and more effectively. However, the usefulness and the practical effectiveness of pharmacogenetic testing currently remains an object of scientific debate. The present narrative and critical review focuses on exploring the available evidence supporting the usefulness of pharmacogenetic testing for the treatment of MDD in clinical practice, highlighting both the points of strength and the limitations of the available studies and of currently used tests. Future research directions and suggestions to improve the quality of available evidence, as well as consideration on the potential use of pharmacogenetic tests in everyday clinical practice are also presented.

Keywords: antidepressant; effectiveness; major depressive disorder; personalized medicine; pharmacogenetic; remission; response; tolerability.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest. The author(s) declared that they were an editorial board member of Frontiers, at the time of submission. This had no impact on the peer review process and the final decision.

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