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Page: << Prev | 1 | 2 | 3 | Next >> "This raises some basic genetic questions about what exactly is the signal coming from the polymorphisms as to function and as to interaction with the drugs," Bernard Carroll, co-author of the research and scientific director of the Pacific Behavioral Research Foundation in Carmel, Calif., said in a prepared statement. "And it serves as a caution that results found in one ethnic group can't necessarily be transposed straight across to another ethnic group."
The new research was conducted at Samsung Medical Center in Seoul and was supported by the South Korean Ministry of Health and Welfare.
The study authors tracked the outcomes of a group of 241 Koreans diagnosed with major depression that had begun, on average, in the individuals' early-to-mid 50s.
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The researchers were interested in two different types of antidepressants and associated pathways in the body: SSRIs and the serotonin transporter gene, as well as NRIs and the associated norepinephrine transporter (NET) gene.
Participants were treated for six weeks with an SSRI (either Prozac or Zoloft) or the NRI nortriptyline (brand names Aventyl or Pamelor).
Individuals who carried the "GG" polymorphism of NET had a better rate of response to NRI treatment than to SSRI treatment (83.3 percent and 58.7 percent, respectively).
"That's a 25 percent difference in response rate, so that is going to have a major impact, we would predict, on clinical practice," Carroll said.
The research also confirmed that response to SSRIs was associated with a genetic variation in the serotonin transporter gene.
Although the findings are preliminary and need to be replicated, particularly in a white population, "we're certainly optimistic that it's going to stand up," Carroll said.
More than half (56 percent) of Koreans and about 45 percent of whites have the GG polymorphism, the researchers noted.
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