Genetic and Bioinformatic Studies of Antidepressant Drug Therapeutic Efficacy and Toxicity: A Current Overview

Antidepressants can relief human depression and reduce human depressive symptoms. Nevertheless, some undesired clinical events, such as suicide have been emerging. As for 2004, the US and European regulatory agencies began implementing verification programs to assess the influence on suicidal behavior from the use of antidepressants such as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs). With the increasing number of reported cases, several newly developed antidepressants were faced with withdrawal from the markets. Despite unclear cause of suicide, researches focusing on revealing the relationship between efficacy and toxicities of antidepressants have been initiated in China and US. To deal with these undesired clinical consequences, new initiatives and revolutionary ideas have been proposed and verified. Hopefully, therapeutic efficacies and outcomes by different types of antidepressant treatments can be improved for clinical trials in future.