Vanderbilt Studies Connection Between Schizophrenia Gene and Medication

New work by Vanderbilt researchers may ease the process of individualizing treatment for schizophrenia.

Right now, doctors have to use a lengthy process of trial and error to determine which antipsychotic drug works for a particular patient. But genetic markers may indicate which medication to choose.

Vanderbilt geneticist Daniel Campbell is the lead author of the study, which was done in conjunction with three other universities. He says they looked at one gene that is strongly associated with the disorder. In the one-thousand patients studied, certain medications worked better with corresponding variations in the gene. And surprisingly, he says they found that African-Americans with a particular variation should definitely avoid one drug.

“What this gene tells you right now if you’ve got-our data show that if you’ve got a certain genotype and a certain ancestry, there’s a particular drug that you should not give to these people. There’s a drug called ziprasidone which will actually make the symptoms of schizophrenia worse.”

Other than that, Campbell says they found no differences tied to race.

The findings are outlined in this month’s issue of Biological Psychiatry. There are several more steps before doctors can begin using genetic tests to prescribe drugs, and between ten and twenty more genes to study.