While limited statistical power means that a number of true associations may have been missed, these results suggest that efficacy of antidepressants may be predicted by genetic markers other than traditional candidates. Genome-wide studies, if properly replicated, may thus be important steps in the elucidation of the genetic basis of pharmacological response.

This study of 9605 community-dwelling residents supports that vitamin D and calcium supplementation may prevent osteoporotic fractures in elderly in a northern European region known to be deficient in vitamin D, especially during winter periods. Introduction:We evaluated the effect of two programs for the prevention of osteoporotic fractures leading to acute hospital admission in a population of elderly community-dwelling residents. Materials and Methods: This was a factorial, cluster-randomized, pragmatic, intervention study. We included 9605 community-dwelling residents aged 66ϩ years. We offered a prevention program of a daily supplement of 1000 mg of elemental calcium as calcium carbonate and 400 IU (10 g) of vitamin D 3 to a total of 4957 participants. Another program with evaluation and suggestions for the improvement of the domestic environment was offered to a total of 5063 participants. Both programs included revision of the resident's current pharmaceutical treatment. We achieved information on osteoporotic fractures in the study population from the Danish Hospital Registration Database. We defined osteoporotic fractures as low energy fractures of the proximal humerus, distal forearm, vertebral column, pelvis, cervical femur, and intertrochanteric femur.

Adverse reactions to antidepressants can be reliably assessed by self-report. Attention to specific adverse reactions may improve adherence to antidepressant treatment.

The objective of the Genome-based Therapeutic Drugs for Depression study is to investigate the function of variations in genes encoding key proteins in serotonin, norepinephrine, neurotrophic and glucocorticoid signaling in determining the response to serotonin-reuptake-inhibiting and norepinephrine-reuptake-inhibiting antidepressants. A total of 116 single nucleotide polymorphisms in 10 candidate genes were genotyped in 760 adult patients with moderate-to-severe depression, treated with escitalopram (a serotonin reuptake inhibitor) or nortriptyline (a norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor) for 12 weeks in an open-label part-randomized multicenter study. The effect of genetic variants on change in depressive symptoms was evaluated using mixed linear models. Several variants in a serotonin receptor gene (HTR2A) predicted response to escitalopram with one marker (rs9316233) explaining 1.1% of variance (P ¼ 0.0016). Variants in the norepinephrine transporter gene (SLC6A2) predicted response to nortriptyline, and variants in the glucocorticoid receptor gene (NR3C1) predicted response to both antidepressants. Two HTR2A markers remained significant after hypothesis-wide correction for multiple testing. A false discovery rate of 0.106 for the three strongest associations indicated that the multiple findings are unlikely to be false positives. The pattern of associations indicated a degree of specificity with variants in genes encoding proteins in serotonin signaling influencing response to the serotonin-reuptake-inhibiting escitalopram, genes encoding proteins in norepinephrine signaling influencing response to the norepinephrine-reuptake-inhibiting nortriptyline and a common pathway gene influencing response to both antidepressants. The single marker associations explained only a small proportion of variance in response to antidepressants, indicating a need for a multivariate approach to prediction.

The effect of 5-HTTLPR on antidepressant response is SSRI specific conditional on gender and modulated by another polymorphism at the 5' end of the serotonin transporter gene.

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It is important that health professionals treating fertile women with a psychiatric disease discuss whether psychotropic drugs are needed during pregnancy and how it has to be administered.

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