Even Still, It's Only a Test

A challenge to the field of pharmacogenomics has been applying genetic tests meaningfully in the clinic. At The Corpus Callosum, a clinician blogs about the recent news that Neuromark has developed a genetic test to identify patients with increased susceptibility for suicide after starting taking an antidepressant. He doubts the validity of their data, but more so, he says, is that although the test may prove useful in determining the underlying mechanisms of why suicide and antidepressants might be linked, “until someone can show that the test can be used to make better decisions in the clinic, it will be a research-only tool.”