Codeine is an opioid pain medication; but if you are a poor metabolizer of a particular enzyme (CYP2D6), you will experience no pain relief from this drug. However, if your doctor could administer something called pharmacogenetic testing, she would know to simply give you morphine (an active metabolite of codeine) instead. For now, this kind of testing isn’t available.
Mary V. Relling, PharmD, the Chair of Pharmaceutical Sciences at St. Jude’s Children Hospital spoke about the need to implement pharmacogenetic testing on Thursday, January 10. A number of tests have recently emerged that are ready for prime time. When we know that some drugs may have adverse effects for people with particular genetic phenotypes, it is unethical to prescribe these drugs without knowing the patient’s genetic status.
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View the full article here: A Call For Action: Genetic Testing Before Prescriptions
