Utilizing Pharmacogenetics for Mental Health

Julie Johnson, Dean of the University of Florida College of Pharmacy, on the ways pharmacogenetics can be utilized for mental health.

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Julie Johnson, PharmD: I think that the hope is that there's very much, you know, in depression and anxiety, for example in particular, there's a lot of trial-and-error process that can be long. There can be a lot of morbidity associated during that period where they're trying to find optimal therapy. So there are guidelines—clinical pharmacogenetics implementation consortium guidelines for several of the antidepressants, including SSRIs and tricyclics. And so there really are opportunities to begin to utilize that. I think there's debate about whether it should be used at the very beginning—so somebody whose very first therapy—or if it's better in a patient who has had some struggles and they've had difficulty finding appropriate therapy. So I think the exact place is still working to be defined.