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Because older depressed patients' responses to antidepressant medications are variable, biomarkers predictive of clinical responses would be greatly useful. In a three-site treatment study involving 350 patients with major depression, investigators studied the potential associations of 22 variants of eight genes (norepinephrine transporter, serotonin transporter, and 6 other serotonin-system genes) to clinical response to venlafaxine, a serotonin–norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor.
Open-label venlafaxine was administered at ≤300 mg/day for 12 weeks; mean dose was 242 mg/day. Of the participants (mean age, 69; white, 89%; women, 64%), 73% had recurrent major depression. Overall, depression remitted in 51%.
Several analytic models could account …