Ethnicity and antidepressant response

Modern psychopharmacology provides us with several effective antidepressants. We are increasingly recognizing the importance of interindividual differences in plasma concentration with these drugs. Such differences are caused by genetics, and the more extreme variations result from the population classified as slow hydroxylators. We now recognize that there are also substantial racial differences in the frequency distribution of slow metabolizers. The importance of studies in this area has been underscored by anecdotal reports as well as cross-cultural surveys of prescribing patterns which indicate that antidepressant dosage requirements may differ among racial groups. This review will focus on the relatively young field of cross-cultural psychopharmacology and the efforts being made to determine the importance of society, culture, environment, genetics, and biophysiology in the prescribing and metabolism of and response to antidepressant drugs.