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Washington: A recent study has shown that genetics can be used to predict a patient's response to antipsychotic treatment for the treatment of schizophrenia.
The findings of the Feinstein Institute for Medical Research were published in the American Journal of Psychiatry.
Schizophrenia is characterized by delusions, hallucinations and disorganized thoughts and behaviors. The disease is currently treated with antipsychotics, but this therapy is administered without the help of laboratory tests to demonstrate its effectiveness, as is common in other areas of medicine.
Doctors often use trials to choose treatment for schizophrenia, without knowing if patients will respond well. This uncertainty weighs heavily not only on patients and their families, but also on health professionals and health systems.
For this study, Professor Todd Lencz and his team used genetic testing to predict the ultimate drug response in patients with the first episode of schizophrenia. Rather than looking for a single gene, the researchers used a relatively new approach called "polygenic risk scores".
"Polygenic risk scores represent the combined effects of several thousand genetic variants throughout the genome and best represent the highly complex genetic nature of schizophrenia," said Jian-Ping Zhang, lead author of the study. ;study.
The researchers found that patients with a high polygenic risk score or a higher genetic burden were less likely to respond to conventional antipsychotic treatment. These results have been replicated in two independent cohorts, representing an international collaboration between scientists from the Feinstein Institute and researchers from across Europe, stressing that this approach should be explored further.
"The results we found open the door to" precision medicine "approaches in psychiatry, and more specifically to the use of polygene scores as a new technology for the treatment of psychiatric disorders," said Dr. Lencz.
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