Therapy-Genetics in the Effectiveness of Interventions

Image A: therapy session

Week 9 - What evidence supports the role of nature and nurture interplay in effectiveness of psychological interventions?

Therapy-genetics is a novel research area, it is the study of genetic markers that predict response to psychological therapy. Lester and colleagues (2012) investigated whether SNPs in nerve growth factor and brain-derived neurotrophic factor genes predict response to cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT), in anxiety-disordered children (N=374). Response to psychological interventions was assessed at post-treatment and follow-up time points. Their evidence pointed out that children with one or more copies of the nerve growth factor, T allele, were significantly more likely to be free of their anxiety diagnosis at follow-up. They found no significant associations between brain-derived neurotrophic factor genes and therapeutic response, which differs from previous research (Kato & Serretti, 2010). Thus, these findings demonstrate that knowledge of genetic determinants can potentially inform clinical treatment decisions for psychotherapeutic interventions. To achieve this, genetic markers need to yield sufficiently large effects to become clinically meaningful.

Supporting evidence comes from Eley et al. (2012), who investigated whether the serotonin transporter gene promoter region (5-HTTLPR) predicts response to CBT. The study's findings suggest that therapy-genetics may have the potential to inform clinical treatment choices. Secondly, the possibility that the 5-HTTLPR influences therapeutic response remains true to the research hypothesis that this genetic marker reflects environmental sensitivity. Replications of this study may provide a tool that could inform the decision of whether CBT is beneficial on its own, or whether enhanced treatment is required.

References

Eley, T. C., Hudson, J. L., Creswell, C., Tropeano, M., Lester, K. J., Cooper, P., ... & Collier, D. A. (2012). Therapygenetics: the 5HTTLPR and response to psychological therapy. Molecular psychiatry, 17(3), 236-237.

Kato, M., & Serretti, A. (2010). Review and meta-analysis of antidepressant pharmacogenetic findings in major depressive disorder. Molecular psychiatry, 15(5), 473-500.

Lester, K. J., Hudson, J. L., Tropeano, M., Creswell, C., Collier, D. A., Farmer, A., ... & Eley, T. C. (2012). Neurotrophic gene polymorphisms and response to psychological therapy. Translational psychiatry, 2(5), e108-e108.

Signing off,

burnt toast, sweet tea;