Polymorphisms in serotonergic pathways influence the outcome of antidepressant therapy in psychiatric inpatients.

Serotonergic pathways are known to play an essential role in the effects generated by antidepressants. Polymorphisms in serotonin receptor and transporter genes have been identified as an important factor. To investigate which of these polymorphisms may be useful to predict clinical outcome, we assessed their effect in a naturalistic clinical study.

Peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma (PPARG) Pro12Ala: lack of association with weight gain in psychiatric inpatients treated with olanzapine or clozapine.

Background And Objective: Weight gain is a common problem of treatment with atypical antipsychotics. However, the dimension of body weight change differs interindividually, and various genetic factors are considered to be associated with this effect. Peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma (PPARG) Pro12Ala polymorphism and its reported relationship to type 2 diabetes susceptibility and body mass accumulation prompted us to investigate the impact of this single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) on antipsychotic-induced changes of body weight and body mass index (BMI) in a naturalistic study design.

TaqMan real-time PCR quantification strategy of CYP2D6 gene copy number for the LightCycler 2.0.

Background: The metabolism of many therapeutic drugs depends on the presence and activity of CYP2D6 enzymes. Poor or ultrarapid metabolism may lead to adverse drug effects and lack of therapeutic efficacy. Determining the CYP2D6 gene copy number (GCN) together with SNP genotyping allows predicting the CYP2D6 phenotype and may be beneficial for patients.