IT’S ALL IN YOUR HEAD –

Nov. 8, 2022 – “I worry that patients who are really struggling, especially now, when rates of depression are higher than ever, are going to hear this and get the idea that these drugs don’t work,” he said, referring to some of the skeptics’ claims. “That’s not true. They do work.”

Predicting who will improve on antidepressants and who won’t is virtually impossible. Attempts to use genetic screening to forecast a person’s potential treatment response haven’t panned out. Those tests provide information on how efficiently the body metabolizes the drug, but Dr. Sanacora said that is most useful for assessing adverse reactions, not effectiveness.

“I think it’s been oversold by some people that you could do a genetic test and it’s going to tell you which drug you’re going to respond to,” he said. “That has never been the case.”

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