Pharmacogenetics of headache treatment.
Headaches and migraines are widely prevalent diseases causing relevant disability and worsened quality of life. Several pharmacological options are available for headache therapy, mostly however without firm rationales and all having high rates of non-responders and often serious side effects. Variability of therapeutic effect and adverse events depend at least in part upon genetic variability, but the genetic factors involved are mostly unknown. Pharmacogenetics, i. e., the application of the knowledge of genomic diversity to the analysis of the phenotypic traits involved in therapeutic response and adverse events, is still in its infancy, but represents a promising approach to therapy in migraine. The extant evidence is summarised here, with special attention to pain therapy and the pharmacogenetics of the serotonergic and the dopaminergic systems.
Montagna
P
P
Department of Clinical Neurology, University of Bologna Medical School, Via Ugo Foscolo 7, I-40123, Bologna, Italy. pmontagn@neuro.unibo.it
Pierangeli
G
G
Cevoli
S
S
Mochi
M
M
Cortelli
P
P
D004298:Dopamine / Q000378:metabolism; D006261:Headache / Q000235:genetics* / Q000628:therapy*; D010597:Pharmacogenetics; D012701:Serotonin / Q000378:metabolism; D019966:Substance-Related Disorders / Q000235:genetics / Q000628:therapy
D012701:Serotonin; D004298:Dopamine