Journal of Psychiatry

Abstract

Use of Pharmacogenetic Testing in Routine Clinical Practice Improves Outcomes for Psychiatry Patients

Timothy Ramsey, Elizabeth Griffin, Qian Liu, Mark D Brennan and Sandeep Vaishnavi

Introduction: In clinical trials, pharmacogenetic testing has been shown to improve outcomes in psychiatric patients. It is unclear if these improved outcomes translate into routine clinical practice. A significant impediment to evaluation of pharmacogenetics testing in routine practice has been a lack of quantifiable outcomes data. This study leverages longitudinal symptom evaluations using validated computer-based assessments to evaluate the impact of pharmacogenetic testing across a number of psychiatric symptom dimensions in routine clinical practice.
Methods: This study retrospectively evaluated data from The Neuropsychiatric Clinic, Carolina Partners, Raleigh, NC who were either tested (n=74) or untested (n=57) with a commercial genetic test at physician’s discretion. All subjects had at least four evaluations with the NeuroPsych Questionnaire-Short Form. Treatment effects were estimated using a general linear model incorporating all time points and baseline values for the 12 NPQ individual items.
Results: Tested patients experienced significantly greater improvement over time in a number of symptom dimensions. Aggression, anxiety, depression, fatigue, impulsivity, mood instability, panic, and suicide symptoms improved more in tested patients compared to untested patients (p=10-8 to 10-20).
Conclusions: In routine clinical practice, pharmacogenetic testing can enable significant improvement in clinically outcomes for psychiatric patients with a variety of diagnoses.