Genetic testing as a supporting tool in prescribing psychiatric medication: Design and protocol of the IMPACT study.

OBJECTIVE: Pharmacotherapy is one of the primary treatments for psychiatric disorders. Given the variation in individual response, a more personalized approach is needed. This paper will discuss methods for user-friendly referrals, recruitment criteria, data storage and dissemination, biological sample and clinical questionnaire collection, and advertising. METHODS: The Individualized Medicine: Pharmacogenetics Assessment and Clinical Treatment (IMPACT) study is one of the first to use pharmacogenetic testing on a large scale in psychiatry as a tool to predict individual drug response and tolerability. As IMPACT's eligibility criteria includes all diagnoses and comorbidities, the participant population will reflect the diversity amongst mental health consumers. IMPACT's innovative study design will demonstrate the utility of this testing within the health care system. RESULTS: IMPACT has successfully implemented pharmacogenetic testing on a relatively large scale, and in both tertiary level and primary care settings. It represents a novel approach to psychiatric care and from its initial stages the design has evolved to accommodate the nature and needs of the health care community. CONCLUSION: It is anticipated that IMPACT will continue to demonstrate the feasibility of pharmacogenetic testing and facilitate its introduction and implementation in routine healthcare practice.

Social Involvement Modulates the Response to Novel and Adverse Life Events in Mice.

Epidemiological findings suggest that social involvement plays a major role in establishing resilience to adversity, however, the neurobiology by which social involvement confers protection is not well understood. Hypothesizing that social involvement confers resilience by changing the way adverse life events are encoded, we designed a series of behavioral tests in mice that utilize the presence or absence of conspecific cage mates in measuring response to novel and adverse events. We found that the presence of cage mates increased movement after exposure to a novel environment, increased time spent in the open arms of the elevated plus maze, and decreased freezing time after a foot shock as well as expedited fear extinction, therefore significantly changing the response to adversity. This is a first description of a mouse model for the effects of social involvement on adverse life events. Understanding how social involvement provides resilience to adversity may contribute to the future treatment and prevention of mental and physical illness.

Human blood analysis reveals differences in gene expression of catecholamine-regulated protein 40 (CRP40) in schizophrenia.

Heat shock proteins (HSPs) are important players in neurodegeneration and psychiatric disorders. We previously reported significant reductions of a 40-kDa Catecholamine Regulated Protein (CRP40) in schizophrenia post-mortem brain specimens. This study investigated whether gene expression of CRP40 is altered in living subjects with schizophrenia. CRP40 mRNA was analyzed in white blood cells of first episode and chronic/treated schizophrenia subjects compared to healthy controls. Significant reductions in CRP40 mRNA were found among first episode schizophrenia subjects and chronic schizophrenia subjects compared to healthy controls (p<0.05 for both). These results suggest a possible functional role of CRP40 in the pathogenesis of schizophrenia.