title: Ethical concerns related to developing pharmacogenomic treatment strategies for addiction.
abstract: Pharmacogenomics (PGx) research is poised to enable physicians to identify optimally effective treatments for individual substance abusers based on their genetic profiles. This paper addresses ethical issues related to PGx treatment strategies for addiction, focusing especially on the use of race variables in genomics research and ensuring equitable access to novel PGx treatments. Unless the field addresses the ethical challenges posed by these issues, PGx treatment innovations for addiction threaten to exacerbate already dramatic disparities in the burden of drug dependence for minority and other underserved populations.
authors: Harvard/MGH Center for Genomics, Vulnerable Populations, and Health Disparities, Mongan Institute for Health Policy Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, USA. ashields@partners.org
authors: Alexandra E
authors: AE
authors: Shields
mesh_terms: D001741:Black or African American; D030541:Databases, Genetic; D018740:Genetic Heterogeneity; D030661:Genetic Privacy; D005820:Genetic Testing; D006801:Humans; D010597:Pharmacogenetics / Q000941:ethics*; D011287:Prejudice; D019966:Substance-Related Disorders / Q000208:ethnology* / Q000235:genetics*; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology