Advanced search
Start date
Betweenand

Pharmacogenetics in psychiatry: search for refractoriness markers in depressed patients undergoing ECT

Abstract

Refractory depression is characterized by severe episodes of long duration which do not remit after usual antidepressant treatment. Up to 20% of these patients fail to respond to treatment with multiple antidepressants and require electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) to achieve response and remission. To minimize the duration of the disease, the emergence of adverse drug reactions (ADRs) and medical costs with treatment, it is useful to have prior knowledge of the therapy that will probably be more effective and better tolerated for each patient. Pharmacogenetics is the science that studies how different genetic factors influence the variation in drug response. The most important targets of pharmacogenetics are the genes that encode proteins responsible for the pharmacokinetics (absorption, metabolism and excretion) and also genes responsible for the pharmacodynamics (interaction with receptors) of drugs. Therefore, pharmacogenetics correlates phenotypic traits of drug response to genetic markers, such as single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), insertions, deletions and microsatellite, and RNA splicing. Patients referred for ECT are by definition, individuals that did not respond to drug treatment. The objective of this project is to study polymorphisms in genes responsible for the pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics of antidepressants in patients whit depression undergoing ECT, in order to identify possible markers of resistance to drug treatment. The knowledge of these markers could contribute to the individualization of therapy, improving the effectiveness of depression treatment. (AU)

Articles published in Agência FAPESP Newsletter about the research grant:
More itemsLess items
Articles published in other media outlets ( ):
More itemsLess items
VEICULO: TITULO (DATA)
VEICULO: TITULO (DATA)