The use of pharmacogenetic testing in patients with schizophrenia or bipolar disorder: A systematic review

INTRODUCTION: Pharmacogenetic testing may assist in identifying an individual's risk of developing a mental illness as well as predict an individual's response to treatment. The objective of this study is to report published outcomes of pharmacogenetic testing in patients with schizophrenia or bipolar disorder. METHODS: A systematic review using PubMed and EBSCOhost through April 2017 was performed to identify articles that reported pharmacogenetic testing in adult patients with either bipolar disorder or schizophrenia using the keywords pharmacy, pharmacogenomics, pharmacogenetics, psychiatry, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, mood stabilizer, and antipsychotic. RESULTS: A total of 18 articles were included in the final literature review. A wide variety of genes amongst adult patients with varying ethnicities were found to be correlated with the development of schizophrenia or bipolar disorder as well as response to antipsychotics and mood stabilizers. DISCUSSION: While current studies show a correlation between genetic variations and medication response or disease predisposition for patients with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, research is unclear on the type of therapeutic recommendations that should occur based on the results of the pharmacogenetic testing. Hopefully interpreting pharmacogenetic results will one day assist with optimizing medication recommendations for individuals with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.