In Case You Haven't Heard…

There is a test, approved last year by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, for assessing the genetic risk of opioid use disorder prior to initiating treatment with opioids (see ADAW https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/adaw.33990 ). At last year's American Psychiatric Association conference in San Francisco, this topic came up at a table in the press room. Nora D. Volkow, MD, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, was present, and opined strongly that all a doctor needs to do is to ask if the patient has any problems with alcohol or any other drugs, or even if a family member did. No need for a genetic test. And the interaction will give the doctor and patient a chance to actually communicate, instead of just using the result to deny a patient pain medication. Given today's love of tests, however inaccurate and unfair, we suppose that the ease of administration — not to mention the doctor's ever‐present fear of bringing up the topic of addiction — will serve this kind of test well.