Pharmacogenomics in psychiatry

Pharmacogenomics may provide us with the means to expedite treatment for patients with various psychiatric disorders. Treatment is presently hampered by individual variation in medication response that often results in an extended trial-and-error process of treatment until the optimal medication is found. This can extend the time until treatment optimization to months or years. Much of this variation may be genetically based. This review discusses current pharmacogenomics research in mood disorders and in schizophrenia. Although the field is in an early stage, results already suggest that DNA tests will one day be of clinical value in the optimal selection of medications for mood and thought disorders.