Drugs, genes and depression

Antidepressants are the most prescribed medicine in the U.S. with about 10% of adults taking prescription medication for depression. However, studies show that less than 50% of people treated for depression experience complete remission of their symptoms. Pharmacogenetics is the study of how people's genes interact with their medication and a U.S. study of 1,914 people looked into how people's genetic make-up affected the effectiveness of the antidepressant citalopram. The researchers found that White patients with a variation in the serotonin transporter gene SLC6A4 were more likely to see a remission of their symptoms after treatment with citalopram; but there was no difference for Black and Hispanic patients.

You can find out more about this research at

http://psychcentral.com/news/2008/07/16/genes-influence-antidepressant-effectiveness/2614.html