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John R. Brown had been on medication for depression and bipolar disorder since high school, but with personal crises swirling, he was desperate for help coping. So when his doctor suggested taking an expensive genetic test to find better treatment, he readily agreed.
"It was so simple," said Brown, a 40-year-old former editor from Rutland, Vermont. "Just a matter of swabbing my cheeks for DNA and sending the test away."
But when his doctor changed his medication, based on those test results, Brown's symptoms became much worse. Within a month, he had voluntarily checked himself into a psychiatric hospital on the brink of suicide.
Now, an investigation by the New England Center for Investigative Reporting, published Sunday in the Boston Globe, has found that the reliability of these new tests, used to guide doctors in prescribing medicine for an array of neuropsychiatric conditions, is uncertain.
"Genetic tests to identify the most effective psychiatry drugs are the hot new thing in the race to create personalized treatments based on people's DNA," says NECIR reporter Beth Daley.
"The take-home is...