Approved Research

Impact of pharmacogenetic profiles on depression treatment outcomes

Lay summary

Depression is a devastating and prevalent disease and it is estimated that around 10% of people suffers from it at some point. Antidepressants are typically prescribed in a trial and error approach. Unfortunately, many patients drop-out of the treatment due to side-effects and disappointment with the unsuccessful therapy. Genetic factors play a major role in the antidepressant treatment success. Some of these factors are known, but many remain undiscovered. This is mostly due to the fact that the majority of genetic variants is rare.

In this project, that will last three years, we will aim to expand current knowledge about individual variety in antidepressant response. First we will select a group of genes involved in both metabolism and mechanism of action of antidepressants, then we will quantify genetic variation in those genes in a large cohort of people. This will allow us to understand the variability of genes important for depression treatment. Next, we will aim to associate particular mutations and groups of mutations with serious side-effects of antidepressants. We will also investigate the possibility to use genetic factors to predict individual responses to particular antidepressants and depression treatment in general. Overall, this project aim is to make discoveries that could improve depression treatment outcomes by allowing a more personalised treatment based on genetic factors.