Pharmacogenomics-Guided Treatment of Depression Evidence-Based Practice Scholarly Project

Pharmacogenomics is a popular topic in psychiatry today that is poised to replace the outdated trial-and-error paradigm of prescribing psychotropic medications. For patients suffering from a myriad of psychiatric disorders, it has been a frustrating period for those who have struggled with multiple failed trials of medications before finding relief from debilitating depression, anxiety, and many other mood-dysregulating disorders. Often, patients are forced to endure several weeks or months of trying psychotropic agents with poor responses and intolerable side effects before finally finding a medication that yields a desired outcome. In some cases, no therapeutic response is ever achieved. With advances in modern medicine and current access to genetic testing, medical providers now have access to an objective picture of the patient’s genetic expression at certain genes that can guide decision-making for which medications, or class of medications, would likely produce symptomatic relief. This is a remarkable snapshot of what pharmacogenomics can do for providers working with patients who suffer from these disorders. Pharmacogenomics is an objective tool that has been anticipated for decades, and it is now available for use by behavioral health specialists and primary care clinicians to guide pharmacotherapy. The Pharmacogenomics-Guided Treatment for Depression Evidence-Based Practice Scholarly Project enhances medical providers’ knowledge of pharmacogenomics to help patients achieve a therapeutic response to antidepressants in ameliorating the incapacitating symptoms of depression.