The Latest Issue of Future Medicine July 7, 2008

Future Medicine is the only journal dedicated totally to personalized medicine. I share the table of contents and some interesting excerpts from the latest issue with you (some of the articles are free to access, some are not):

• Genetic profiling in primary care can enhance personalized drug therapy: reality or myth?

If pharmacogenomics is to reach primary-care clinical practice, the genetic knowledge, skills and attitudes of professionals have to be improved at both undergraduate and postgraduate level. A recent report has stressed the need for genetic education to infiltrate all aspects of healthcare, from undergraduate to continuing professional development for all healthcare practitioners.

• Direct-to-consumer genetic testing: more questions than benefits?

The lack of adequate counseling and consequent misunderstanding of test results could lead to confusion and apprehension regarding results. Genetic results for common complex disorders are complicated by the fact that they are probabilistic in nature, and must be interpreted in the context of family history, present health status and other environmental conditions. Consumers who obtain a test revealing a form of increased risk may overestimate the risk they have of developing disease and this may cause undue stress and anxiety and unnecessary follow-up tests or treatments.

• XDx, Inc.
• Pharmacogenetic testing of CYP2D6 in patients with aripiprazole-related extrapyramidal symptoms: a case–control study
• The contractual genome: how direct-to-consumer genomic services may help patients take ownership of their DNA
• Bridge over troubled questions