Pharmacogenetics of antidepressive drugs: a way towards personalized treatment of major depressive disorder.

ABSTRACT

Major depressive disorder is one of the most prevalent psychiatric disorders, and in spite of extensive ongoing research, we neither fully understand its etiopathological background, nor do we possess sufficient pharmacotherapeutic tools to provide remission for all patients. Depression is a heterogenous phenomenon both in its manifestation and its biochemical and genetic background with multiple systems involved. Similarly, the employed pharmaceutical agents in the treatment of depression also effect multiple neurotransmitter systems in the brain. However, we do not yet possess sufficient tools to be able to choose the medication that treats the symptoms most effectively while contributing to minimal side effects in parallel and thus provide personalized pharmacotherapy for depression. In the present paper we review genetic polymorphisms that may be involved in the therapeutic effects and side effects of antidepressive medications and which, in the future, may guide customized selection of the pharmacotherapeutic regimen in case of each patient.