Pharmacogenomic testing for antidepressant treatment selection: lessons learned and roadmap forward

Pharmacogenomic technology is a developing field with enthusiastic interest and broad application potential. Three large, controlled studies have been published exploring the benefit of pharmacogenomically guided antidepressant treatment selection. Though all three studies did not show significant benefit of using this technology, these studies laid the foundation for further research that should address the limitations of this previous research and currently available commercial platforms. Future research needs to include large scale pharmacogenomic trials with GWAS analytics across diverse groups with attention to cost-effectiveness models, particularly for cases of treatment resistance and polypharmacy. The application of results from these large scale pharmacogenomic trials must also include exploring optimal EHR user interface design.