Will a new genotyping test help the clinician predict response to antidepressant drugs?

The aim of this paper is to evaluate the accuracy of a new genotyping test (Antidepressant PredictAR) in assigning patients as likely 'poor', 'rapid' or 'normal' metabolizers of antidepressant drugs.

Eighty-nine patients were clinically assigned (on the basis of their historical response to antidepressant drugs) as 'poor', 'rapid' or 'normal' metabolizers and comparison was then made to their test-based 2D6 and C19 genotyping status reports.

The overall capacity of the test to allocate patients to four differing phenotypic categories reporting for the genotyping test was not significant in relation to either C19 or 2D6 analyses. However, the C19 test did appear to have some capacity to identify rapid metabolizers, and we note how we then sought to manage such patients clinically.

The test may have some capacity to identify patients with a rapid metabolizing profile. Any further advantages were not identified by this study, whether reflecting methodological and/or assay limitations.