title: Pharmacogenetics of schizophrenia.
abstract: There is substantial unexplained interindividual variability in the drug treatment of schizophrenia. A substantial proportion of patients respond inadequately to antipsychotic drugs, and many experience limiting side effects. As genetic factors are likely to contribute to this variability, the pharmacogenetics of schizophrenia has attracted substantial effort. The approaches have mainly been limited to association studies of polymorphisms in candidate genes, which have been indicated by the pharmacology of antipsychotic drugs. Although some advances have been made, particularly in understanding the pharmacogenetics of some limiting side effects, genetic prediction of symptom response remains elusive. Nevertheless, with improvements in defining the response phenotype in carefully assessed and homogeneous subject groups, the near future is likely to see the identification of genetic predictors of outcome that may inform the choice of pharmacotherapy.
authors.affiliation: Division of Psychiatry and Neuroscience, Queen's University Belfast, Whitla Medical Building, 97 Lisburn Road, Belfast BT9 7BL, UK. g.reynolds@qub.ac.uk
authors.forename: Gavin P
authors.initials: GP
authors.lastname: Reynolds
authors.forename: Lucy A
authors.initials: LA
authors.lastname: Templeman
authors.forename: Beata R
authors.initials: BR
authors.lastname: Godlewska
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D014150:Antipsychotic Agents / Q000494:pharmacology; D006801:Humans; D010597:Pharmacogenetics; D011110:Polymorphism, Genetic / Q000235:genetics; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology; D015430:Weight Gain / Q000187:drug effects
chemical_list: D014150:Antipsychotic Agents