Depression and anxiety disorders currently affect hundreds of millions of people worldwide. However, finding the right drug is still a big challenge: nearly half of patients do not respond to the first prescription, causing them to change their medication many times over many weeks or months.
A research group in Sweden, Germany and Denmark said they are getting closer to a new solution. The team developed a testing method based on the polygenic risk score (PRS), analyzing DNA variants related to the ability to respond to each type of depression drug and anxiety drug.
In this approach, doctors can predict the drug that is most effective for each patient with just a simple genetic test.
With the expectation of shortening the treatment process, Professor Fredrik Åhs from Mid Sweden University (first author of the study) said that PRS technology has only been tested on genetic research data, but the initial results are very promising.
He commented: "We aim to build a clear and easy-to-use test for clinicians. The long-term goal is to have an affordable, effective tool, helping to choose the right medicine from the beginning, significantly reducing patients' suffering and waiting time".
The project was launched when Professor Åhs collaborated with Professor Doug Speed from the Center for Quistic Genetics and Genetics, University of Aarhus (denmark). Speed is an expert in the field of complex genetic data modeling and has spent many years researching the link between genetic variation and psychological disorders.
The surprising results are that multi-gen risk scores not only predict disease risk but also predict drug reactions, says Professor Speed. This is an important step forward to put personalized treatment into practice.
Although more clinical trials are needed, scientists expect PRS-based DNA testing to become a popular tool in mental health care, helping to shorten drug selection, increase treatment effectiveness and improve the quality of life for millions of patients.
