Tag: genetic testing
No Difference in Antidepressant Effectiveness After Genetic Testing
Genetic testing may help reduce the length of time people experience the harmful effects of antidepressant drugs, but it is not helpful for predicting efficacy.
Direct-to-Consumer Genetic Testing is Often Wrong
Direct-to-consumer (DTC) genetic testing has an âalarmingly highâ 40% false-positive rate.
Proove Biosciences Sells Off Assets as CEO Departs
From STAT: Proove Biosciences, which sold dubious DNA tests to predict opioid addiction risk, has been placed into court-ordered receivership for restructuring and asset sale. Experts...
FBI Raids Lab That Pays Doctors to Promote Genetic Tests
From STAT: Federal investigators recently searched Proove Biosciences, a genetic testing company that purports to determine an individual's likelihood of becoming addicted to opioids. Proove's genetic...
CYP Testing to Help Prevent Dangerous Adverse Drug Reactions
Drug-drug interactions can be extremely dangerous, even if the CYPs are genetically normal. The picture becomes even more grim if we take into account drug-gene interactions. Genetic testing for variants in the CYP enzyme system will definitely save lives.
Schizophrenia Twin Research as Reported in The Gene: An Intimate History...
In his 2016 book The Gene: An Intimate History, cancer physician and researcher Siddhartha Mukherjee chronicled the initial idea of the gene, taking readers through the history of genetics up to the current âpost-genomeâ period by interweaving science, social history, and his own personal narrative. In the process he documented some of the crimes of the eugenics movement and the monstrous atrocities committed by German National Socialism in the name of eugenics and biology, while noting the Naziâs promotion of twin research. He also criticized aspects of intelligence testing and genetic theories of racial inferiority based on IQ tests. At the same time, Mukherjee supported and promoted many contemporary behavioral genetics positions.
Schizophrenia and Genetics: A Closer Look at the Evidence
âThe substantial hereditary component in schizophrenia,â a pair of researchers wrote in 1993, âis surely one of the two or three best-established facts in psychiatry.â But is it really? For mainstream psychiatry and psychiatric genetics, schizophrenia is âa severe mental disorder with a lifetime risk of about 1%, characterized by hallucinations, delusions and cognitive deficits, with heritability estimated at up to 80%,â or a âhighly heritable neuropsychiatric disorder of complex genetic etiology.â Many commentators have challenged these claims, and some have challenged the concept of schizophrenia itself.
âNew Psychiatric DNA Testing Is Unproven Groundâ
NBC News reports that "Genetic tests to identify the most effective psychiatry drugs are the hot new thing in the race to create personalized treatments based on people's DNA.â An investigation by the New England Center for Investigative Reporting, however, found that these new tests are based on small studies conducted by device manufacturers, and those with financial conflicts on interest.