potential for home gene tests for bipolar

Mari · 03-24-2008, 04:22 AM

Hi,
This test looks like a start, but otherwise I am not sure what to think of it.
Maybe we need genetic testing for the right meds -- that would be something to celebrate.
M.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080322/...O_Swjvon2s0NUE

Quote:

Home bipolar disorder test causes stirs

Dr. John Kelsoe has spent his career trying to identify the biological roots of bipolar disorder. In December, he announced he had discovered several gene mutations closely tied to the disease, also known as manic depression.

Then Kelsoe, a prominent psychiatric geneticist at the University of California, San Diego, did something provocative for the buttoned-down world of academic medical research: He began selling bipolar genetic tests straight to the public over the Internet last month for $399.

Quote:

Many other genes interacting with a patient's environment contribute to the development of bipolar disorder, Kelsoe and other researchers believe, meaning no single genetic variation ultimately causes the disease.

Researchers in Kelsoe's lab are working to track down more genes.

"Why are we starting before it's finished? You've got to start somewhere," Kelsoe said. "Even if we knew everything about the genes, which we certainly don't, it's never going to be 100 percent predictive."

Quote:

The Food and Drug Administration does not evaluate the tests for accuracy, though a panel is working on a set of standards for the growing industry.

For now, worry persists that with the proliferation of tests, there is too little understanding of what to do with the results, or what they mean.

"We just don't know how people will use the information," said Dr. Jinger Hoop, a professor of psychiatric genetics and medical ethics at the Medical College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee. "We don't know whether it will be helpful to them in the long run."