Genetic counselor opinions of, and experiences with telephone communication of BRCA1/2 test results.

BRCA1/2 test disclosure has, historically, been conducted in-person by genetics professionals. Given increasing demand for, and access to, genetic testing, interest in telephone and Internet genetic services, including disclosure of test results, has increased. Semi-structured interviews with genetic counselors were conducted to determine interest in, and experiences with telephone disclosure of BRCA1/2 test results. Descriptive data are summarized with response proportions. One hundred and ninety-four genetic counselors completed self-administered surveys via the web. Although 98% had provided BRCA1/2 results by telephone, 77% had never provided pre-test counseling by telephone. Genetic counselors reported perceived advantages and disadvantages to telephone disclosure. Thirty-two percent of participants described experiences that made them question this practice. Genetic counselors more frequently reported discomfort with telephone disclosure of a positive result or variant of uncertain significance (p < 0.01) than other results. Overall, 73% of participants reported interest in telephone disclosure. Many genetic counselors have provided telephone disclosure, however, most, infrequently. Genetic counselors identify potential advantages and disadvantages to telephone disclosure, and recognize the potential for testing and patient factors to impact patient outcomes. Further research evaluating the impact of testing and patient factors on cognitive, affective, social and behavioral outcomes of alternative models of communicating genetic information is warranted.

Patient Perceptions of Care as Influenced by a Large Institutional Pharmacogenomic Implementation Program.

Despite growing clinical use of genomic information, patient perceptions of genomic-based care are poorly understood. We prospectively studied patient-physician pairs who participated in an institutional pharmacogenomic implementation program. Trust/privacy/empathy/medical decision-making (MDM)/personalized care dimensions were assessed through patient surveys after clinic visits at which physicians had access to preemptive pharmacogenomic results (Likert scale, 1 = minimum/5 = maximum; mean [SD]). From 2012-2015, 1,261 surveys were issued to 507 patients, with 792 (62.8%) returned. Privacy, empathy, MDM, and personalized care scores were significantly higher after visits when physicians considered pharmacogenomic results. Importantly, personalized care scores were significantly higher after physicians used pharmacogenomic information to guide medication changes (4.0 [1.4] vs. 3.0 [1.6]; P < 0.001) compared with prescribing visits without genomic guidance. Multivariable modeling controlling for clinical factors confirmed personalized care scores were more favorable after visits with genomic-influenced prescribing (odds ratio [OR] = 3.26; 95% confidence interval [CI] = (1.31-8.14); P < 0.05). Physicians seem to individualize care when utilizing pharmacogenomic results and this decision-making augmentation is perceived positively by patients.

Pharmacogenomics-Based Point-of-Care Clinical Decision Support Significantly Alters Drug Prescribing.

Changes in behavior are necessary to apply genomic discoveries to practice. We prospectively studied medication changes made by providers representing eight different medicine specialty clinics whose patients had submitted to preemptive pharmacogenomic genotyping. An institutional clinical decision support (CDS) system provided pharmacogenomic results using traffic light alerts: green = genomically favorable, yellow = genomic caution, red = high risk. The influence of pharmacogenomic alerts on prescribing behaviors was the primary endpoint. In all, 2,279 outpatient encounters were analyzed. Independent of other potential prescribing mediators, medications with high pharmacogenomic risk were changed significantly more often than prescription drugs lacking pharmacogenomic information (odds ratio (OR) = 26.2 (9.0-75.3), P < 0.0001). Medications with cautionary pharmacogenomic information were also changed more frequently (OR = 2.4 (1.7-3.5), P < 0.0001). No pharmacogenomically high-risk medications were prescribed during the entire study when physicians consulted the CDS tool. Pharmacogenomic information improved prescribing in patterns aimed at reducing patient risk, demonstrating that enhanced prescription decision-making is achievable through clinical integration of genomic medicine.

It's long-term stressors that take a toll: comment on Cohen et al. (1998)

In an extremely well-controlled study, Cohen et al. (1998) add to prior knowledge of stress-illness relationships by showing that self-reports of stress occurrence and duration of 1 month or more, rather than estimates of stressor severity, predict susceptibility to experimentally induced colds (i.e., viral replication and cold symptoms). Although ruling out obvious behavioral and personality factors as causes of the association of stressors to colds, they were unable to identify mediational immune factors, a deficit attributable to the difficulty of assessing the multi-layered, dynamic physiological processes within the bidirectional connections of the nervous (stress) and immune systems. The findings provide an interesting complement to data, showing that people use stressor duration in evaluating the illness implications of somatic symptoms (Cameron et al., 1995), and suggest caution with regard to overestimating the prevalence of stress-induced colds in natural settings.

Negative affect relates to cross-sectional but not longitudinal symptom reporting: data from elderly adults.

To test hypotheses about the relationship between negative affect and symptom reports, symptom reports of 4 groups of elderly participants (N = 76; mean age = 73.5 years) were compared: those high on measures of both depression and anxiety, those high on one measure and low on the other, and those low on both measures. Symptom reports were obtained before and after 3 simultaneously given active inoculations (influenza; tetanus toxoid; and keyhole limpet hemocyanin, a neoantigen) and 3 similarly given placebo injections. Cross-sectional analyses replicated associations between negative affect and reports of elevated systemic (flulike) symptoms. Local symptoms (sore arm and redness at injection site) increased significantly from before to after active inoculations. Reports of systemic symptoms declined from before to after for both active and placebo inoculations regardless of affect groups. The results add to previous research showing that negative affect is related to cross-sectional symptom reporting but not to increases in symptom reporting from before to after a symptom-producing inoculation procedure.