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Researchers are avidly pursuing genetic explanations of why individuals respond differently to antidepressants. Investigators in the Genome-Based Therapeutic Drugs for Depression (GENDEP) study conducted a genome-wide exploration of 706 genetically unrelated European participants with unipolar major depression who received 12 weeks of escitalopram (which selectively inhibits the serotonin transporter without affecting norepinephrine reuptake) or nortriptyline (which has an 100-times-greater affinity for the norepinephrine transporter than for the serotonin transporter).
No significant pharmacogenetic associations were found for 72 candidate genes selected a priori. However, an analysis of almost 540,000 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs)…